2018年12月大学英语四级真题完整版(第3套)_共13页

2018年12月大学英语四级考试真题（第3套）Part I Writing (30minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of starting a career after graduation. You should write at least120 words but no more than 180 words._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)说明：由于2018年12月四级考试全国共考了2套听力，本套真题听力与前2套内容完全一样，只是顺序不一样，因此在本套真题中不再重复出现。

Part ⅢReading Comprehension ( 40 minutes )Section ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.Section BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.How a Poor, Abandoned Parisian Boy Became a Top ChefA) When you drop a piece of food on the floor, is it really OK to eat if you pick it up within five seconds? An urban food myth contends that if food spends just a few seconds on the floor, dirt and germs won’t have much of a chance to contaminate it. Research in my lab has focused on how food becomes contaminated, and we’ve done some work on this particular piece of wisdom.B) While the “five-second rule” might not seem like the most pressing issue for food scientists to get to the bottom of, it’s still worth investigating food myths like this one because they shape our beliefs about when food is safe to eat.C) So is five seconds on the floor the critical threshold（门槛）that separates a piece of eatable food from a case of food poisoning? It’s a bit more complicated than that. It depends on just how many bacteria can make it from floor to food in a few seconds and just how dirty the floor is.D) Wondering if food is still OK to eat after it’s dropped on the floor is a pretty common experience. And it’s probably not a new one either. A well-known, but inaccurate, story about Julia Child may have contributed to this food myth. Some viewers of her cooking show, The French Chef, insist they saw Child drop lamb on the floor and pick it up, with the advice that if they were alone in the kitchen, their guests would never know.E) In fact it was a potato pancake, and it fell on the stovetop, not on the floor. Child put it back in the pan, saying, “But you can always pick it up and if you’re alone in the kitchen, who’s going to see it?” But the misremembered story persists. It’s harder to pin down the origins of the oft-quoted five-second rule, but a 2003 study reported that 70% of women and 56% of men surveyed were familiar with the five-second rule and that women were more likely than men to eat food that had dropped on the floor.F) So what does science tell us about what a few moments on the floor means for the safety of your food? The earliest research report on the five-second rule is attributed to Jillian Clarke, a high school student participating in a research project at the University of Illinois. Clarke and her colleagues introduced bacteria to floor tiles（瓷砖）and then placed cookies on the tiles for varying times. They reported bacteria were transferred from the tiles to the cookies within five seconds, but didn’t report the specific amount of bacteria that made it from the tiles to the food.G) But how many bacteria actually transfer in five seconds? In 2007, my lab at Clemson University published a study in the Journal of Applied Microbiology. We wanted to know if the length of time food is in contact with a contaminated surface affected the rate of transfer of bacteria to the food. To find out, we introduced bacteria to squares of tile, carpet or wood. Five minutes after that, we placed either bacon or bread on the surface for 5,30 or 60 seconds, and then measured the number of bacteria transferred to the food. We repeated this exact procedure after the bacteria had been on the surface for 2,4,8 and 24 hours.H) We found that the number of bacteria transferred to either kind of food didn’t depend much on how long the food was in contact with the contaminated surface—whether for a few seconds or for a whole minute. The overall number of bacteria on the surface mattered more, and this decreased over time after the initial introduction. It looks like what’s at issue is less how long your food stays on the floor and much more how contaminated with bacteria that patch of floor happens to be.I) We also found that the kind of surface made a difference as well. Carpets, for instance, seem to be slightly better places to drop your food than wood or tile. When a carpet was contaminated, less than 1% of the bacteria were transferred. But when the food was in contact with tile or wood, 45-70% of bacteria were.J) Last year, a study from Aston University in the UK used nearly identical parameters（参数）to our study and found similar results. They also reported that 87% of people asked either would eat or had eaten food fallen on the floor.K) Should you eat food fallen on the floor then? From a food safety standpoint, if you have millions or more bacteria on a surface, 0.1% is still enough to make you sick. Also, certain types of bacteria are extremely harmful, and it takes only a small number to make you sick. For example, 10 bacteria or less of an especially deadly strain of bacteria can cause severe illness and death in people with compromised immune systems. But the chance of these bacteria being on most surfaces is very low.L）And it’s not just dropping food on the floor that can lead to bacterial contamination. Bacteria are carried by various “media”, which can include raw food, moist surfaces where bacteria have been left, our hands or skin and from coughing or sneezing（打喷嚏）. Hands, foods and utensils（器皿）can carry individual bacteria living in communities contained within a protective film. These microscopic layers of deposits containing bacteria are known as biofilms and they are found on most surfaces and objects. Biofilm communities can harbor bacteria longer and are very difficult to clean. Becteria in these communities also have an enhanced resistance to sanitizers（清洁剂）and antibiotics compared to bacteria living on their own.M）So the next time you consider eating fallen food, the odds are in your favor that you can eat it without getting sick. But in the rare chance that there is a micro-organism that there is a micro-organism that can make you sick on the exact spot where the food dropped, you can be fairly sure that the bug is on the food you are about to put in your mouth.N）Research or common sense tells us that the best thing to do is keep your hands, utensils and other surfaces clean.36. A research project found bacteria made their way to the food on the floor in five seconds.37. Whether food is contaminated depends much on the number of bacteria that get onto it.38. Food contamination may result from various factors other than food dropping on the floor.39. Males are less likely than females to eat food that may have been contaminated.40. The author’s research centers around how food gets contaminated.41. Keeping everything clean is the best way to stay healthy.42. Chances are you will not fall sick because of eating food picked up from the floor.43. For a long time people have had the experience of deciding whether or not to eat food picked up from the floor.44. Some strains of bacteria are so harmful that a tiny few can have deadly consequences.45. Researchers found how many bacteria got onto the food did not have much to do with how long the food stayed on a contaminated floor.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 and 50 are based on the following passage.The latest in cat research reveals that the lovely animal seems to have a basic grasp on both the laws of physics and the ins and outs of cause and effect.According to a newly published study, cats seem to be able to predict the location of hiding prey（猎物）using both their ears and an inborn（天生的）understanding of how the physical world works.In a recent experiment, Japanese researchers taped 30 domestic cats reacting to a container that a team member shook. Some containers rattled（发出响声）；others did not. When the container was tipped over, sometimes an object fell out and sometimes it didn’t. It turns out that the cats were remarkably smart about what would happen when a container was tipped over. When an object did not drop out of the bottom of a rattling container, they looked at it for a longer time than they did when the container behaved as expected. “Cats use a causal-logical understanding of noise or sounds to predict the appearance of invisible objects,” lead researcher Saho Takagi says in a press release. The researchers conclude that cats’ hunting style may have developed based on their common-sense abilities to infer where prey is, using their hearing.Scientists have explored this idea with other endearing creatures: babies. Like cats, babies appear to engage in what’s called “preferential looking”—looking longer at things that are interesting or unusual than things they perceive as normal. When babies’ expectations are violated in experiments like the ones performed with the cats, they react much like their animal friends. Psychologists have shown that babies apparently expect their world to comply with the laws of physics and cause and effect as early as two months of age.Does the study mean that cats will soon grasp the ins and outs of cause and effect? Maybe. Okay, so cats may not be the next physics faculty members at America’s most important research universities. But by demonstrating their common sense, they’ve shown that the divide between cats and humans may not be that great after all.46.What do we learn from a newly published study about cats?A) They can be trained to understand the physical world.B) They know what kind of prey might be easier to hunt.C) They have a natural ability to locate animals they hunt.D) They are capable of telling which way their prey flees.47. What may account for the cats’ response to the noise from the containers?A) Their inborn sensitivity to noise.B) Their unusual sense of direction.C) Their special ability to perceive.D) Their mastery of cause and effect.48. What is characteristic of the way cats hunt, according to the Japanese researchers?A) They depend on their instincts. C) They wait some time before attack.B)They rely mainly on their hearing. D) They use both their ears and eyes.49. In what way do babies behave like cats?A) They focus on what appears odd.B) They view the world as normal.C) They do what they prefer to do.D) They are curious about everything.50. What can we conclude about cats from the passage?A) They have higher intelligence than many other animals.B) They interact withe the physical world much like humans.C) They display extraordinarily high intelligence in hunting.D) They can aid physics professors in their research work.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.Imagine you enter a car with no steering wheel, no brake or accelerator padals（踏板）. Under a voice-activated command, you say an address. “The fastest route will take us 15.3 minutes. Should I take it?” You say “yes” and you are on your way. The car responds and starts moving all by itself. All you have to do is sit back and relax.How weird would it be if, one day in the future, everyone had such a car? No crazy driving, no insults, no cutting in; traffic laws would be respected and driving much safer. On the other hand, imagine the cost savings for local police enforcement and town budgets without all those speeding and parking tickets.A new technology has the potential to change modern society in radical ways. There’s no question that self-driving vehicles could be an enormous benefit. The potential for safer cars means accident statistics would drop: some 94% of road accidents in the U.S. involve human error. Older drivers and visually-or physically-impaired people would gain a new level of freedom. Maintaining safe speeds and being electric, self-driving cars would drastically reduce pollution levels and dependency on non-renewable fuels. Roads would be quieter, people safer.But we must also consider the impact of the new technology on those who now depend on driving for their livelihoods. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in May 2015 there were 505,560 registered school bus drivers. The American Trucking Association lists approximately 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the U.S.The companies developing self-driving vehicles should be partnering with state and federal authorities to offer retraining for this massive workforce, many of whom will be displaced by the new technology. This is similar to what’s happening in the coal and oil industries a situation that fuels much of the current political discontent in this country. New technologies will, and should, be developed. This is how society moves forward. However, progress can’t be one-sided. It is necessary for the companies and state agencies involved to consider the ethical consequences of these potential changes to build a better future for all.51.What would be the impact of the extensive use of driverless cars?A) People would be driving in a more civilized way.B) It would save local governments a lot of money.C) More policemen would be patrolling the streets.D) Traffic regulations would be a thing of the past.52. How would the elderly and the disabled benefit from driverless cars?A) They could enjoy greater mobility.B) They would suffer no road accidents.C) They would have no trouble driving.D) They could go anywhere they want.53. What would be the negative impact of driverless cars?A) The conflict between labor and management would intensify.B) The gap between various sectors of society would be widened.C) Professional drivers would have a hard time adapting to new road conditions.D) Numerous professional drivers would have to find new ways of earning a living.54. What is the result of the introduction of new technologies in energy industries?A) Political dissatisfaction.B) Retraining of employees.C) Fossil fuel conservation.D) Business restructuring.55. What does the author suggest businesses and the government do?A) Keep pace with technological developments.B) Make new technologies affordable to everyone.C) Enable everyone to benefit from new technologies.D) Popularize the use of new technologies and devices.Part ⅣTranslation (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.过去几年里，移动支付市场在中国蓬勃发展。

2018年12月四级考试真题及答案第一部分：听力（共20小题）这部分共有20个小题，每个小题你将听到一个句子，并看到有关这个句子的三个选项。

请你从中选出与句子内容相符的选项。

A)He borrowed a pen from the girl.B)The girl lent him a pen.C)The boy gave a pen to the girl.A)The man will go to the supermarket.B)The man needs to buy some food.C)The supermarket is closed.A)She is seldom late for class.B)She arrives early for class.C)She always rushes to class.…第二部分：阅读理解（共10篇）这部分共有10篇短文，每篇短文后面有2-3个与短文内容相关的问题。

请你根据短文内容，选择正确的答案。

Passage 1Living in a big and bustling metropolis, one tends to feel isolated and lonely. This is not to say you are alone; it is the fact you are alone in a crowd. You don’t even know most of your neighbors’ names, while of those few you do know, you can hardly remember who they are. Sometimes when you do meet someone you like, it just seems you are miles apart in your interests and views. You have acquaintances but few friends, making you long to reach out and make new friends.4.According to the passage, people living in a big city often _______.A)feel alone even when surrounded by peopleB)know most of their neighbors’ namesC)have a lot of close friends5.What does the author say about meeting people in a big city?A)It is easy to find friends who share your interests and views.B)It is difficult to find people with similar interests and views.C)It is unnecessary to meet new people in a big city.…第三部分：写作（共两篇）第一篇：图表作文根据下面所给的图表和提示，描写2010年至2018年某社会现象的变化。

2018年英语四级真题（三）Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of starting a career after gradution. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear three news reports. At the end of each news report, you will hear two or three questions. Both the news report and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.1.A) A man was pulled to safety after a building collapse.B) A beam about ten feet long collapsed to the ground.C) A rescue worker got trapped in the basement.D) A deserted 100-year-old building caught fire.2. He suffered a fatal injury in an accident.B) He once served in a fire department.C) He was collecting building materials.D) He moved into his neighbor’s old house.Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.3.A) Improve the maths skills of high school teachers.B) Change British people，s negative view of maths.C) Help British people understand their paychecks.D) Launch a campaign to promote maths teaching.4.A) Children take maths courses at an earlier age.B) The public sees the value of maths in their life.C)British people know how to do elementary calculations.D)Primary school teachers understand basic maths concepts.Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.5. A)He owns a fleet of aircraft.B)He is learning to be a pilot.C) He regards his royal duties as a burden.D) He held a part-time job for over 20 years.6. A) He can demonstrate his superior piloting skills.B) He can change his focus of attention and relax.C) He can show his difference from other royalty.D) He can come into closer contact with his people.7. A) They enjoyed his company.B) They liked him in his uniform.C) They rarely recognised him.D) They were surprised to see him.Section BDirections: In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of each conversation, you will hear four questions. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet I with a single line through the centre.Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.8. A) They were skilled carpenters themselves.B) It didn’t need much capital to start with.C) Wood supply was plentiful in Romania.D) They saw a business opportunity there.9. A) Provide quality furniture at affordable prices.B) Attract foreign investment to expand business.C) Enlarge their company by hiring more workers.D) Open some more branch companies in Germany.10. A) They are from her hometown.B) They are imported from Germany.C) They all come from Romania.D) They come from all over the continent.11. A) All across Europe.B) Throughout the world.C) Mostly in Bucharest.D) In Romania only.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12. A) Go to a concert with him and his girlfriend.B) Try out a new restaurant together in town.C) Go with him to choose a pearl for Susan.D) Attend the opening of a local restaurant.13. A) It is sponsored by local restaurants.B) It specializes in food advertising.C) It is especially popular with the young.D) It provides information on local events.14. A) They design a special set of menus for themselves.B) They treat themselves to various entertainments.C) They go to eat at different stylish restaurants.D) They participate in a variety of social events.15. A) More restaurants will join Restaurant Week.B) This year’s Restaurant Week will start soon.C) Bigger discounts will be offered this Restaurant WeekD) More types of food will be served this Restaurant WeekSection CDirections: In this section, you will hear three passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear three or four —Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre. Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.16.A) Rewarding them for eating vegetables.B) Exposing them to vegetables repeatedly.C) Improving the taste of vegetable dishes for themD) Explaining the benefits of eating vegetables to them.17. A) They were disliked most by children.B) They were considered most nutritious.C) They were least used in Belgian cookingD) They were essential to children’s health.18. A) Vegetables differ in their nutritional value.B) Children's eating habits can be changed.C) Parents watch closely what children eat.D) Children's choices of food vary greatly.Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.19.A) Space exploration has serious consequences.B) India has many space exploration programs.C) There is quite a lot to learn about the moon.D) A lot of garbage has been left on the moon.20. A) It is costly to bring back.B) It is risky to destroy.C) It is of no use on Earth.D)It is damaged by radiation.21. A) Record details of space exploration,B) Monitor the change of lunar weather.C) Explore the possibility of human settlement on the moon.D) Study the effect of radiation and vacuum on its materials.Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.22. A) It will have to be governed by specific rules.B) It will gradually be replaced by social media.C) It is likely to be a competitor of various messaging apps.D) It is likely to remain a means of business communication.23. A) Make a timely response.B) Save the message in their file.C) See if any action needs to be taken.D) Examine the information carefully.24. A) It is to be passed on.B) It requires no reply.C)It causes no concern.D) It is mostly junk.25. A) Make it as short as possible.B) Use simple and clear language.C) Avoid using capitals for emphasis.D) Adopt an informal style of writing.Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Have you ever used email to apologize to a colleague? Delivered a __26__ to a subordinate（下属）with a voice-mail message? Flown by plane across the country just to deliver important news in person? The various communication options at our fingertips to lay can be good for __27__ and productivity—and at the same time very troublesome. With so many ways to communicate, how should a manager choose the one that’s best— __28__ when the message to be delivered is bad or unwelcom e news for the recipient? We’ve __29__ business communication consultants and etiquette（礼仪）experts to come up with the following guidelines for__30__ using the alternative ways of delivering difficult messages.First of all, choose how personal you want to be. A face-to-face communication is the most __31__. Other choices, in descending order of personalization, are: a real-time phone call, a voice-mail message, a handwritten note, a typewritten letter, and the most __3__ is email. Some of these may change order according to the __33__ situation or your own preferences; for example, a handwritten note might seem more personal than voice-mail. How do you decide on the best choice for the difficult Message you’ve got to deliver? “My __34__ concern is: How ca n I soften or civilize this message?” says etiquette expert Dana Casperson. “ So when I apologize, I usually choose in-person first, or a phone conversation as my top alternative, and maybe a handwritten note next. Apologizing by email is something I now t otally __35__.”A) avoid B) convenience C) effectively D) escape E) intimate F) particularlyG) primary H) prompt I) reward j) silent K) specific L) surveyedM) unfriendly N) warning O) witnessedSection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.How a Poor, Abandoned Parisian Boy Became a Top ChefA)The busy streets in Paris were uneven and caked in thick mud, but there was always a breathtaking sight to see in the shop windows of Patisserie de la Rue de la Paix. By 1814, people crowded outside the bakery, straining for a glimpse of the latest sweet food created by the young chef who worked inside.B) His name was Marie-Antoine Careme, and he had appeared, one day, almost out of nowhere. But in his short lifetime, which ended exactly 184 years ago today, he would forever revolutionize French gourmet food（美食)，write best-selling cook books and think up magical dishes for royals and other important people.C) Careme's childhood was one part tragedy, equal part mystery. Born the 16th child to poor parents in Paris in either 1783 or 1784, a young Careme was suddenly abandoned at the height of the French Revolution. At 8 years old, he worked as a kitchen boy for a restaurant in Paris in exchange for room and board. By age 15, he had become an apprentice（学徒）to Sylvain Bailly, a well-known dessert chef with a successful bakery in one of Paris’most fashionable neighborhoods.D) Careme was quick at learning in the kitchen. Bailly encouraged his young apprentice to learn to read and write. Careme would often spend his free afternoons at the nearby National Library reading books on art and architecture. In the back room of the little bakery, his interest in design and his baking talent combined to work wonders—he shaped delicious masterpieces out of flour, butter and sugar.E) In his teenage years, Careme fashioned eatable copies of the late 18th century’s most famous buildings一cookies in the shape of ruins of ancient Athens and pies in the shape of ancient Chinese palaces and temples. Sylvain Bailly, his master, displayed these luxuriant creations一often as large as 4 feet tall—in his bakery windows.F) Careme's creations soon captured the discriminating eye of a French diplomat, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-P6rigord. Around 1804, Talleyrand challenged Careme to produce a full menu for his personal castle, instructing the young baker to use local, seasonal fruits and vegetables and to avoid repeating main dishes over the course of an entire year. The experiment was a grand success and Talleyrand’s association with French nobility would prove a profitable connection for Careme.G) French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was known to be unimpressed by the declining taste of early 18th century cooking, but under pressure to entertain Paris’ high society, he too called Careme to his kitchen at Tuileries Palace. In 1810, Careme designed the extraordinary cake for the wedding of Napoleon and his second bride, Marie-Louise of Austria. He became one of the first modem chefs to focus on the appearance of his table, not just the flavor of his dishes. “I want order and taste. A well-displayed meal is enhanced one hundred percent in my eyes,” he later wrote in one of his cook books.H) In 1816, Careme began a culinary（烹饪的）journey which would forever mark his place as history’s first top chef. He voyaged to England to cook in the modem Great Kitchen of the prince regent（摄政王)，George IV, and crossed continents to prepare grand banquets for the tables of Tsar Alexander I of Russia. Never afraid to talk up his own accomplishments, a boastful Careme made a fortune as wealthy families with social ambitions invited him to their kitchens. Later, in his cook books, he would often include a sketch of himself, so that people on the street would be able to recognize—and —admire—him.I)Careme's cooking displays became the symbol of fine French dining; they were plentiful, beautiful and imposing. Guests would fall silent in wonder as servants carried Careme's fancy creations into the dining hall. For a banquet celebrating the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia’s visit to George IV’s Brighton Pavillion on Jan. 18, 1817, the menu featured 120 different dishes, highlighting eight different soups, 40 main courses, and 32 desserts.J)As he traveled through the homes of early 19th century nobility, Careme forged the new art of French gourmet food. Locked in hot kitchens, Careme created his four “mother sauces.” These sauces—bechamel, veloute, espagnole and allemande—formed the central building blocks for many French main courses. He also perfected the soufifle—a baked egg dish, and introduced the standard chefs uniform—the same double- breasted white coat and tall white hat still worn by many chefs today. The white clothing conveyed an image of cleanliness, according to Careme—and in his realm, appearance was everything.K)Between meals, Careme wrote cook books that would be used in European kitchens for the next century. His manuals including The Royal Parisian Baker and the massive five-volume Art of French Cooking Series (1833-1847, completed after his death) first systematized many basic principles of cooking, complete with drawings and step-by-step directions. Long before television cooking shows, Careme walked readers through common kitchen tasks, instructing them to “try this for yourself, at home” as famous American Chef Julia Child might do, many years later.L) In the end, however, it was the kitchen that did Careme in. Decades of working over coal fires in tight, closed spaces with little fresh air (to ensure his dishes would not get cold) had fatally damaged his lungs. On Jan. 12, 1833, Careme died just before he turned 50.M) But in his lifetime, Careme, ever confident, could see beyond his short domination in the kitchen. He wanted to ”set the standard for beauty in classical and modem cooking, and prove tothe distant future that the French chefs of the 19th cent ury were the most famous in the world,” as he wrote in his papers.N) Decades later, chef Auguste Escoffier would build upon Careme’s concept of French cuisine （烹任）.But in the very beginning, there was just Careme, the top chef who elevated dining into art.36.Careme was among the first chefs who stressed both the appearance and flavor of dishes.37. Careme wanted to show to later generations that French chefs of his time were most outstanding in the world.38. Careme benefited greatly from serving a French diplomat and his connections.39. Careme learned his trade from a famous desert chef in Paris.40. Careme’s creative works were exhibited in the shop windows by his master.41.Careme’s knowledge of art and architecture helped him create extr aordinary desserts out of ordinary ingredients.42. Many people in Paris were eager to have a look at the latest sweet food made by Careme.43. Careme became extremely wealthy by cooking for rich and socially ambitious families.44. Careme’s writing dealt with the fundamental cooking principles in a systematic way.45. Careme's contribution to French cooking was revolutionary.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.Roughly the size of a soda can, sitting on a bookshelf, a relatively harmless gadget may be turning friends away from your home. The elephant in your living room is your Internet-connected security camera, a device people are increasingly using for peace of mind in their homes. But few stop to think about the effect these devices may have on house guests. Should you tell yourfri ends, for instance, that they’re being recorded while you all watch the big game together?“It’s certainly new territory, especially as home security cameras become easier to install,”says Lizzie Post, president of the Emily Post Institute, America's foremost manners advisors. “I think it will be very interesting to see what etiquette （礼仪）emerges in terms of whether you tell people you have a camera or not, and whether guests have a right to ask that it be turned off, if it’s not a security issue.”Pos t wants to make clear that she’s not talking about legal rights, but rather personal preferences. She also wants to explain that there are no right or wrong answers regarding manners on this front yet, because the technology is just now becoming mainstream. Besides, the Emily Post Institute doesn’t dictate manners.When it comes to security cameras, Post says it’s a host’s responsibility to make sure guests feel comfortable within their home. “I’m always a fan of being open and honest.” For instance, if t he host casually acknowledges that there is a camera in the room by telling a story about it, that may be enough to provide an opening for a guest to say if they are uncomfortable.However, if a contractor is working in your home, you don’t need to tell them that there are cameras watching. Then again, the air of accountability that the camera generates can also work in contractors* favor. “If anything does go wrong while they’re in the house, they don’t want to be blamed for it,” she says. “In fact, the camera could be the thing that proves that they didn’t steal the $20, or knock the vase off the table.”46.For what reason may your friends feel reluctant to visit your home?A) The security camera installed may intrude into their privacy.B) They do n’t want their photos to be circulated on the Internet.C) The security camera may turn out to be harmful to their health.D) They may not be willing to interact with your family members.47. What does Lizzie Post say is new territory?A) The effect of manners advice on the public.B) Cost of applying new technologies at home.C) The increasing use of home security devices.D) Etiquette around home security cameras.48. What is Lizzie Post mainly discussing with regard to the use of home security cameras?A) Legal rights.B) Moral issues.C) Likes and dislikes of individuals.D) The possible impact on manners.49. What is a host’s responsibility regarding security cameras, according to Lizzie Post?A) Making their guests feel at ease.B) Indicating where they are.C) Turning them off in time.D) Ensuring their guests，privacy.50.In what way can the home security camera benefit visitors to your home?A) It can satisfy their curiosity.B)It can prove their innocence.C) It can help them learn new technology.D) It can make their visit more enjoyable.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.PepsiCo is to spend billions of dollars to develop drinks and snacks and reformulate existing ones with lower sugar, salt and fat, as consumers demand healthier options and regulatory pressure intensifies amid an obesity epidemic（流行病）.The maker of Mountain Dew and Gatorade has been one of the earlier movers in the industry to offer products with reduced levels of unhealthy ingredients—PepsiCo claims a packet of its chips now contains less salt than a slice of white bread. However, its new 10-year plan makes clear it believes it still has a long way to go.Shifting eating habits, including a sharp drop in consumption of sparkling drinks, have forcedradical change on the industry. But those shifts have yet to be reflected in record obesity levels, which stand at 36.5% overall in the US.Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo chairman, said the plan to make its products healthier was important for the company’s growth. But on the subject of obesity, she pointed out that consumers’lifestyles have changed significantly, with many people being more sedentary（久坐不动的）not least because more time is spent in front of computers. She said PepsiCo’s contribution was to produce healthier snacks that still tasted good.“Society has to change its habits,” she added. “We can’t do much to alter sedentary lifestyles, but we can provide consumers with great-tasting products, low in salt, sugar and fat. In the past we had to have a taste trade-off. But we’re breaking that trade-off.”PepsiCo’s plan for its foods and drinks is based on guidelines from the World Health Organisation, which last week backed using taxes on sparkling drinks to reduce sugar consumption. Initiatives also include efforts to reduce its environmental impact, water consumption and materials used in packaging by 2025.PepsiCo did not say exactly how much it planned to invest to reach its goals. However, Dr Mehmood Khan, chief scientific officer, said the company had doubled research and development spending in the past five years and was “committed to sustaining investm ent”，adding that companies cannot cost-cut their way to increasing sales. PepsiCo’s research and development budget in 2015 was $754 million.51.Why is PepsiCo making a policy change?A) To win support from the federal government.B) To be more competitive in the global market.C) To satisfy the growing needs for healthy foods.D) To invest more wisely in the soft drink industry.52.What does PepsiCo think it will have to do in the future?A) Invest more to develop new snacks.B) Reduce levels of obesity in the US.C) C hange consumers’ eating habits.D)Keep on improving its products.53.Why does PepsiCo plan to alter its products, according to Indra Nooyi?A)To ensure the company’s future development.B) To adapt to its customers’ changed taste.C) To help impr ove its consumers’ lifestyles.D) To break the trade-off in its product design.54. What does Indra Nooyi say about the obesity epidemic?A) It is mainly caused by overconsumption of snacks.B) It results from high sugar and salt consumption.C) It is attributable to people’s changed lifestyles.D) It has a lot to do with longer working hours.55.What has PepsiCo been doing to achieve its objective?A)Studying WHO，s guidelines.B)Increasing its research funding.C)Expanding its market overseas.D)Cutting its production costs.Part IV Translation (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.越来越多的中国人现在的确离不开手机了。

2018 年12 月大学英语四级考试真题完整版（含答案解析）Part I Writing (30minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of studying abroad. You should write at least120 words but no more than 180 words.Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)Section ADirections: In this section, you will hear three news reports. At the end of each news report, you will hear two or three questions. Both the news report and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard.1. A) A man was pulled to safety after a building collapse.B) A beam about ten feet long collapsed to the ground.C) A rescue worker got trapped in the basement.D) A deserted 100-year-old building caught fire.2. A) He suffered a fatal injury in an accident.B) He once served in a fire department.C) He was collecting building materials.D) He moved into his neighbor ’ s old house.Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard.3. A) Improve the maths skills of high school teachers.B) Change British people ’ s negative view of maths.C) Help British people understand their paychecks.D) Launch a campaign to promote maths teaching.4. A) Children take maths courses at an earlier age.B) The public sees the value of maths in their life.C) British people know how to do elementary calculations.D) Primary school teachers understand basic maths concepts.Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard.5. A) He owns a fleet of aircraft.B) He is learning to be a pilot.C) He regards his royal duties as a burden.D) He held a part-time job for over 20 years.6. A) He can demonstrate his superior piloting skills.B) He can change his focus of attention and relax.C) He can show his difference from other royalty.D) He can come into closer contact with his people.7. A) They enjoyed his company.B) They liked him in his uniform.C) They rarely recognised him.D) They were surprised to see him.Section BDirections：In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of each conversation, youwill hear four questions. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C), and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.8. A) They were skilled carpenters themselves.B) It didn ’t nee u d ch m capital to start with.C) Wood supply was plentiful in Romania.D) They saw a business opportunity there.9. A) Provide quality furniture at affordable prices.B) Attract foreign investment to expand business.C) Enlarge their company by hiring more workers.D) Open some more branch companies in Germany.10. A) They are from her hometown.B) They are imported from Germany.C) They all come from Romania.D) They come from all over the continent.11. A) All across Europe. B) Throughout the world.C) Mostly in Bucharest. D) In Romania only.Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.12. A) Go to a concert with him and his girlfriend.B) Try out a new restaurant together in town.C) Go with him to choose a pearl for Susan.D) Attend the opening of a local restaurant.13. A) It is sponsored by local restaurants.B) It specializes in food advertizing.C) It is especially popular with the young.D) It provides information on local events.14. A) They design a special set of menus for themselves.B) They treat themselves to various entertainments.C) They go to eat at different stylish restaurants.D) They participate in a variety of social events.15. A) More restaurants will join Restaurant Week.B) This year ’s Restaurant W w ee i lk l start soon.C) Bigger discounts will be offered this Restaurant Week.D) More types of food will be served this Restaurant Week.Section CDirections: In this section, you will hear three passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear three or four questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the fourchoices marked A), B), C), D). Then mark the corresponding letter on AnswerSheet 1 with a single line through the centre.Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.16. A) Rewarding them for eating vegetables.B) Exposing them to vegetables repeatedly.C) Improving the taste of vegetable dishes for them.D) Explaining the benefits of eating vegetables to them.17. A) They were disliked most by children.B) They were considered most nutritious.C) They were least used in Belgian cooking.D) They were essential to children ’ s health.18. A) Vegetables differ in their nutritional value.B) Children ’ s eating habits can be changed.C) Parents watch closely what children eat.D) Children ’ s choices of food vary greatly.Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard.19. A) Space exploration has serous consequences.B) India has many space exploration programs.C) There is quite a lot to learn about the moon.D) A lot of garbage has been left on the moon.20. A) It is costly to bring back. B) It is risky to destroy.C) It is of no use on Earth. D) It is damaged by radiation.21. A) Record details of space exploration.B) Monitor the change of lunar weather.C) Study the effect of radiation and vacuum on its materials.D) Explore the possibility of human settlement on the moon.Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.22. A) It is likely to remain a means of business communication.B) It is likely to be a competitor of various messaging apps.C) It will gradually be replaced by social media.D) It will have to be governed by specific rules.23. A) Save the message in their file.B) Make a timely response.C) Examine the information carefully.D) See is any action needs to be taken.24. A) It is to be passed on. B) It is mostly junk.C) It requires no reply. D) It causes no concern.25. A) Make it as short as possible.B) Use simple and clear language.C) Adopt an informal style of writing.D) Avoid using capitals for emphasis.Part ⅢReading Comprehension ( 40 minutes )Section ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.Have you ever used email to apologize to a colleague? Delivered a 26 to a subordinate ( 下属)with a voice-mail message? Flown by plane across the country just to deliver important news in person? The various communication options at our fingertips today can be good for 27 and productivity —and at the same time very troublesome. With so many ways to communicate, how should a manager choose the one that's best —28 when the message to be delivered is bad or unwelcomenews for the recipient? We've 29 business communication consultants and etiquette ( 礼仪)experts to come up with the following guidelines for 30 using the alternative ways of delivering difficult messages.First of all, choose how personal you want to be. A face-to-face communication is the most 31 . Other choices, in descending order of personalization, are: a real-time phone call, a voice-mail message, a handwritten note, a typewritten letter, and the most 32 is email. Some of these may change order according to the 33 situation or your own preferences; for example, a handwritten note might seem more personal than voice-mail. How do you decide on the best choice for the difficult message you've got to deliver? “My 34 concern is: How can I soften or civilize this message?”says etiquette expert Dana Casperson. “ Sowhen I apologize, I usually choose in -person first, or a phone conversation as my top alternative, and maybe a handwritten note next. Apologizing by email is something I now totally 35 . ”A) avoidI) rewardB) convenience J) silentC) effectivelyD) escapeK) specificE) intimate L) surveyedF) particularly M) unfriendlyG) primary N) warningH) prompt O) witnessedSection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which theinformation is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with aletter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.How a Poor, Abandoned Parisian Boy Became a Top ChefA) The busy streets in Paris were uneven and caked in thick mud, but there was always a breathtaking sight to see in the shop windows of Patisserie de la Rue de la Paix. By 1814, people crowdedoutside the bakery, straining for a glimpse of the latest sweet food created by the young chef who worked inside.B) H is name was Marie-Antoine Car me,êand he had appeared, one day, almost out of nowhere. Butin his short lifetime, which ended exactly 184 years ago today, he would forever revolutionize Frenchgourmet food （美食）, write best-selling cook books and think up magical dishes for royals and otherimportant people.C) C ar ême's childhood was one part tragedy, equal part mystery. Born the 16th child to poorparents in Paris in either 1783 or 1784, a young Car me was sudêdenly abandoned at the height of theFrench Revolution. At 8 years old, he worked as a kitchen boy for a restaurant in Paris in exchange forroom and board. By age 15, he had become an apprentice （学徒）to Sylvain Bailly, a well-knowndessert chef with a successful bakery in one of Paris's most fashionable neighborhoods.D) C ar ême was quick at learning in the kitchen. Bailly encouraged his young apprentice to learn toread and write. Car meêwould often spend his free afternoons at the nearby National Library readingbooks on art and architecture. In the back room of the little bakery, his interest in design and his bakingtalent combined to work wonders —he shaped delicious masterpieces out of flour, butter and sugar.E) I n his teenage years, Car ême fashioned eatable copies of the late 18th century's most famous buildings—cookies in the shape of ruins of ancient Athens and pies in the shape of ancient Chinese palaces and temples. Sylvain Bailly, his master, displayed these luxuriant creations —often as large as 4feet tall —in his bakery windows.F) C ar ême's creations soon captured the discriminating eye of a French diplomat, Charles Mauricede Talleyrand-P riégord. Around 1804, Talleyrand challenged Car ême to produce a full menu for his personal castle, instructing the young baker to use local, seasonal fruits and vegetables and to avoidrepeating main dishes over the course of an entire year. The experiment was a grand successandTalleyrand's association with French nobility would prove a profitable connection for Car me. êG) French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was known to be unimpressed by the declining taste ofearly 18th century cooking, but under pressure to entertain Paris's high society, he too called Car me tohis kitchen at Tuileries Palace. In 1810, Car ême designed the extraordinary cake for the wedding of Napoleon and his second bride, Marie-Louise of Austria. He became one of the first modern chefs tofocus on the appearance of his table, not just the flavor of his dishes. “ Iwant order and taste. A5 / 19well- displayed meal is enhanced one hundred percent in my eyes, ”he later wrote in one of his cookbooks.H) I n 1816, Car ême began a culinary (烹饪的) journey which would forever mark his place ashistory's first top chef. He voyaged to England to cook in the modern Great Kitchen of the prince regent(摄政王)，George Ⅳ, and crossed continents to prepare grand banquets for the tables of Tsar AlexanderⅠ of Russia. Never afraid to talk up his own accomplishments, a boastful Car ême made a fortune aswealthy families with social ambitions invited him to their kitchens. Later, in his cook books, he wouldoften include a sketch of himself, so that people on the street would be able to recognize—andadmire —h im.I) C ar ême's cooking displays became the symbol of fine French dining; they were plentiful, beautifuland imposing. Guests would fall silent in wonder as servants carried Car me's fancy creaêtions into thedining hall. For a banquet celebrating the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia's visit to George Ⅳ 's BrightonPavillion on Jan. 18, 1817, the menu featured 120 different dishes, highlighting eight different soups, 40main courses, and 32 desserts.J) A s he traveled through the homes of early 19th century nobility, Car meêforged the new art ofFrench gourmet food. Locked in hot kitchens, Car êmecreated his four “mother sauces. ”Thesesauces—béchamel, velout ,éespagnole and allemande—formed the central building blocks for manyFrench main courses. He also perfected the souffl —éa baked egg dish, and introduced the standardchef's uniform —the same double-breasted white coat and tall white hat still worn by many chefs today.The white clothing conveyed an image of cleanliness, according to Car ême—and in his realm,appearance was everything.K) B etween meals, Car mêe wrote cook books that would be used in European kitchens for the nextcentury. His manuals including The Royal Parisian Baker and the massive five-volume Art of FrenchCooking Series (1833-1847, completed after his death) first systematized many basic principles of cooking,complete with drawings and step-by-step directions. Long before television cooking shows, Car êmewalked readers through common kitchen tasks, instructing them to “trythis for yourself, athome” as famous American Chef Julia Child might do, many years later.L）In the end, however ，it was the kitchen that did Car me in. Dêecades of working over coal fires intight, closed spaces with little fresh air (to ensure his dishes would not get cold) had fatally damaged hislungs. On Jan. 12, 1833, Car me dieêd just before he turned 50.M ）But in his lifetime, Car me, evêe r confident, could see beyond his short domination in the kitchen.He wanted to “ sethe standard for beauty in classical and modern cooking, and prove to the distantfuture that the French chefs of the 19th century were the most famous in the world, ” as he wrote papers.N）Decades later, chef Auguste Escoffier would build upon Car me's conceptêof French cuisine （烹饪）. But in the very beginning, there was just Car me, the toêp chef who elevated dining into art.36. Car37. Car mêe was among the first chefs who stressed both the appearance and flavor of dishes.mêe wanted to show to later generations that French chefs of his time were most outstanding6 / 19in the world.38. Car39. Car40. Car mêe benefited greatly from serving a French diplomat and his connections. mêe learned his trade from a famous dessert chef in Paris.mêe's creative works were exhibited in the shop windows by his master.41. Car ême's knowledge of art and architecture helped him create extraordinary desserts out ofordinary ingredients.42. Many people in Paris were eager to have a look at the latest sweet food made by Car me. ê43. Car44. Car45. Car mêe became extremely wealthy by cooking for rich and socially ambitious families. mêe's writings dealt with fundamental cooking principles in a systematic way.mêe's contribution to French cooking was revolutionary.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions orunfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You shoulddecide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line throughthe centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 and 50 are based on the following passage.Roughly the size of a soda can, sitting on a bookshelf, a relatively harmless gadget may be turningfriends away from your home. The elephant in your living room is your Internet-connected securitycamera, a device people are increasingly using for peace of mind in their homes. But few stop to thinkabout the effect these devices may have on house guests. Should you tell your friends, for instance, thatthey're being recorded while you all watch the big game together?“It'scertainly new territory, especially as home security cameras become easier to install, s”a ysLizzie Post, president of the Emily Post Institute, America's foremost manners advisors. “I think it willbe very interesting to see what etiquette （礼仪）emerges in terms of whether you tell people you have acamera or not, and whether guests have a right to ask that it be turned off, if it's not a security issue.Post wants to make clear that she's not talking about legal rights, but rather personal preferenc.She also wants to explain that there are no right or wrong answers regarding manners on this front yet,because the technology is just now becoming mainstream. Besides, the Emily Post Institute doesn'tdictate manners.When it comes to security cameras, Post says it's a host's responsibility to make sure guests feelcomfortable within their home. “ I'm always a fan of being open and honest. ” For instance, if the ho casually acknowledges that there is a camera in the room by telling a story about it, that may be enoughto provide an opening for a guest to say if they are uncomfortable.However, if a contractor is working in your home, you don't need to tell them that there are cameraswatching. Then again, the air of accountability that the camera generates can also work in contractors'favor. “ If anything does go wrong while they're in the house, they don't want to be blamed for it,says. “In fact, the camera could be th t e hing that proves that they didn't steal the $20, or knock the vaseoff the table. ”46. F or what reason may your friends feel reluctant to visit your home?A) The security camera installed may intrude into their privacy.B) They don ’t want their photos to e c b irculated on the Internet.7 / 19C) The security camera may turn out to be harmful to their health.D) They may not be willing to interact with your family members.47.What does Lizzie Post say is new territory?A) The effect of manners advice on the public.B) Cost of applying new technologies at home.C) The increasing use of home security devices.D) Etiquette around home security cameras.48. What is Lizzie Post mainly discussing with regard to the use of home security cameras?A) Legal rights. C) Likes and dislikes of individuals.B) M oral issues D) The possible impact on manners.49. What is a host ’ s responsibility regarding security cameras, according to Lizzie Post?A) Making their guests feel at ease.B) Indicating where they are.C) Turning them off in time.D) Ensuring their guests ’privacy.50. In what way can the home security camera benefit visitors to your home?A) It can satisfy their curiosity.B) It can prove their innocence.C) It can help them learn new technology.D) It can make their visit more enjoyable.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.PepsiCo is to spend billions of dollars to develop drinks and snacks and reformulate existing oneswith lower sugar, salt and fat, as consumers demand healthier options and regulatory pressure intensifiesamid an obesity epidemic （流行病）.The maker of Mountain Dew and Gatorade has been one of the earlier movers in the industry tooffer products with reduced levels of unhealthy ingredients —PepsiCo claims a packet of its chips nowcontains less salt than a slice of white bread. However, its new 10-year plan makes clear it believes it stillhas a long way to go.Shifting eating habits, including a sharp drop in consumption of sparkling drinks, have forcedradical change on the industry. But those shifts have yet to be reflected in record obesity levels, whichstand at 36.5% overall in the US.Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo chairman, said the plan to make its products healthier was important for thecompany's growth. But on the subject of obesity, she pointed out that consumers ’lifestyles have changed significantly, with many people being more sedentary （久坐不动的）not least because more time isspent in front of computers. She said PepsiCo's contribution was to produce healthier snacks that stilltasted good.“ Society has to change its habits, ”she added. “ We can't do much to alter sedentary lifestyles, but can provide consumers with great-tasting products, low in salt, sugar and fat. In the past we had to havea taste trade-off. But we're breaking that trade- off. ”PepsiCo's plan for its foods and drinks is based on guidelines from the World Health Organisation, which last week backed using taxes on sparkling drinks to reduce sugar consumption. Initiatives also include efforts to reduce its environmental impact, water consumption and materials used in packaging by 2025.PepsiCo did not say exactly how much it planned to invest to reach its goals. However, Dr Mehmood Khan, chief scientific officer, said the company had doubled research and development spending in the past five years and was “committed to sustaining investment ”ad, d ing that companies cannot cost-cut their way to increasing sales. PepsiCo's research and development budget in 2015 was $754 million.51. W hy is PepsiCo making a policy change?A) To win support from the federal government.B) To be more competitive in the global market.C) To satisfy the growing needs for healthy foods.D) To invest more wisely in the soft drink industry.52. What does PepsiCo think it will have to do in the future?A) Invest more to develop new snacks.B) Reduce levels of obesity in the US.C) Change consumers ’ eating habits.D) Keep on improving its products.53. Why does PepsiCo plan to alter its products, according to Indra Nooyi?A) To ensure the company’ s future development.B) To adapt to its customers ’ changed taste.C) To help improve its consumers ’lifestyles.D) To break the trade-off in its product design.54. What does Indra Nooyi say about the obesity epidemic?A) It is mainly caused by overconsumption of snacks.B) It results from high sugar and salt consumption.C) It is attributable to people ’ s changed lifestyles.D) It has a lot to do with longer working hours.55. What has PepsiCo been doing to achieve its objective?A) Studying WHO ’s guidelines. B) Increasing its research funding.C) Expanding its market overseas. D) Cutting its production costs.Part ⅣTranslation (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.越来越多的中国人现在的确离不开手机了。

2018年12月英语四级考试参考答案（全三套）第一套听力原文News 1A device that weighs less than one kilogram is part of a mission that will allow scientists to deliver fourth generation or 4G mobile coverage to the moon in 2019. If successful, the tiny device will provide the moon with its first ever mobile phone network. The lunar network will support high definition streaming of video and data between the moon and earth. The network is part of a mission to the moon. This is a project with the goal of landing the first privately paid for mission to the moon. The 4G mission is set to launch from Cape Canaveral in the United States on a space X Falcon 9 rocket in 2019. Mission to the moon intends to establish and test the first elements of a communications network on the moon. The scientists working on the project opted to build a 4G rather than a fifth generation or 5G network. This is because fifth generation networks are still in testing and trial phases. This means that a 5G network may not yet be stable enough to work on the moon’s surface.Question 1: What are scientists planning to do?Question 2: Why did scientists choose to set up a 4G network in their mission?News 2It’s responded to a fire Wednesday night at an abandoned mall in Heywood. The fire was reported at 9:26 pm at an old shopping center on Michigan Avenue near St. Mary’s Church. Six fire engines, two trucks and two chiefs responded to the scene. Crews had the fire under control in about 45 minutes and managed to contain the fire to its point of origin. There were some people inside the building when the fire broke out but there were no reports of any injuries. Fire investigators have responded to the scene but have not yet determined the cause of the fire. Firefighters will remain on the scene until later this morning to ensure that the fire doesn’t start upagain. The shopping mall had not been in use since 2002. In 2014 City Hall developed a plan to knock down the building and replace it with affordable housing. However the plan was dropped due to lack of funds.Question 3: What does the news item say about the fire?Question 4: What had City Hall planned to do?News 3Potato chips in Japan are being sold for 6X their normal price. This is after the country’s main manufacturer stopped sales due to a potato shortage. Storms and floods and its main potato growing region last year caused the worst harvest and more than 3 decades. Local media reports suggest Calbee and its main rival Koike-ya are halting almost 50 products.“We don’t know when we’ll be able to restart”, a company spokesman said. Snack lovers are panic buying and many supermarket shelves are bare. Japanese laws limit the amount of imported potatoes that can be used in Japanese made products. Japan says fear of disease is its main reason to block fresh imports. It still only allows potatoes from selected US states. This is only at certain times and on condition that they are processed at factories based near Japanese ports.But global warming has raised the possibility that domestic produce could be seriously affected by rare weather events more often.Question 5: What problem is Japan facing?Question 6: Why does Japan limit the import of potatoes?Question 7: What might affect Japanese domestic produce?Conversation 1M: Mr. Brown’s lectures are so boring.W: Yes, he is not a very exciting speaker. But the subject is interesting. M: During every one of his lectures, I try to listen I really try. But after about 10 minutes my mind begins to wander and I lose concentration. ButI see that you seem to be OK. How do you stay focused through the entire hour?W: Well, what I do is keep my pen moving.M: What do you mean?W: It’s a method of active concentration I read about. One of the most effective ways to concentrate is to write things down. But it has to be done by hand, not typing on a keyboard. You see writing by hand forces you to actually engage with what you’re learning in a more physical way.M: Do you review your notes afterwards then?W: Sometimes but that’s not important. My notes may or may not be useful but the point is that by writing down what Mr. Brand says I can follow his line of thinking more easily. In fact, sometimes I draw a little too.M: You draw in class and that helps me pay attention?W: Yes, honestly it works for me. I just draw little lines and nonsense really. It was also in that article I read. It can keep the mind active, prevent getting bored and help to concentrate. Again the point is to listen hard while keeping the pen moving. If I’m at home and I need to study what I do is read out loud. It has a similar effect to writing by hand. It helps memorize information in a physical way.Question 8: What does the man think of Mr. Brown’s lectures?Question 9: What does the woman do during Mr. Brown’s lectures?Question 10: Why does the woman draw in class?Question 11: What does the woman say about reading out loud?Conversation 2M: And where is this?F: These photos are from the Taj Mahal in India. We went there about ten years ago for our honeymoon.M: Was it romantic.F: Yeah. The Taj Mahal was a very romantic place. The guide told us there is a famous love story behind this building that all Indians learn in school.I think it was during the 1600 and the princess at that time died while givingbirth to her 14th child. The Emperor loved the princess so much and was so sad when she died that he ordered the palace to be built in her honor. M: Wow! That sounds very romantic. It looks amazing.F: Yes it’s gorgeous. It’s also larger in real life than it looks in the photos. The building is very tall and there are gardens in a wall around it all. It’s all built in this white stone and some walls of the building are decorated with jewels.M: It must have been very crowded when you were there.F: Yes it’s a very famous tourist destination. So there are thousands of visitors every day.M: Was the rest of India crowded?F: Yes, very crowded in many cities. It was sometimes so crowded that it was difficult to walk along the streets especially through busy markets. And there are so many cars. Traffic was terrible but the people were friendly. The culture is amazing and we had a great time.M: What about the food?F: the Indian food is great. There are lots of different dishes to try and every region has its own special food.Question 12: For what purpose did the woman go to India?Question 13: Why was the Taj Mahal built?Question 14: What does the woman say about the Taj Mahal?Question 15: What is the woman‘s impression of Indian cities?Passage 1A Pew Research Center survey of more than 1000 Americans conducted in April 2016 finds that Americans continue to express largely positive views about the current state of their local public libraries. For instance around three quarters say that public libraries provide them with the resources they need and 66 percent say the closing of their local public library would have a major impact on their community. Although notably just 33 percent say this would have a major impact on them personally or on their family. A majority of Americans feel libraries are doing a good job of providing asafe place for people to hang out or spend time as well as opening up educational opportunities for people of all ages and roughly half think their libraries contribute a lot to their communities in terms of helping spark creativity among young people and providing a trusted place for people to learn about new technologies. As in past Pew Research Center surveys of library use the April 2016 survey also measured Americans usage of and engagement with libraries. Overall, 53 percent of Americans ages 16 and older have had some interaction with the puppet library in the past year either through an in person visit or using a library Web site some 48 percent of adults specifically visited a library in the past 12 months. A modest increase from the 44 percent who said that in late 2015.Question 16: What do most Americans say about local public libraries? Question 17: How can local public libraries benefit young people?Question 18：What does the 2016 survey show about adult library users?Passage 2A Savannah cat is a crossbreed between a domestic cat and a medium-sized wild African cat called the Serval. The unusual cross became popular among breeders at the end of the 1990s. And in 2001, the International Cat Association accepted it as a new registered breed. The savannahs are tall and slim and can weigh up to nine point one kilograms, making them one of the largest breeds of cats that people can own. They have a spotted code similar to that of many types of wild cats and their ears are very large. They are also commonly compared to dogs in their loyalty and can be trained to walk on a lead and to fetch, and often noted characteristic of the Savannah is its jumping ability. They are known to jump on top of doors and high cabinets. Some can leap about 2.5 metres high from a standing position. Cats are typically known for being very inquisitive and so are the Savannahs. They often learn how to open doors and cupboards. Many Savannah cats do not fear water and will play with or even dive into water. Some owners even shower with their Savannah Cats, presenting a water bowl to Savannah may also prove a challenge, as some will promptly begin to bat all the water out of the bowl until it is empty using their front paws.Question 19: What do we learn about the savannah cat?Question 20: What is characteristic of Savannah cats?Question 21: What do some people do with their Savannah cats?Passage 3When children start school for the very 1st time parents often feel a sense of excitement coupled with a touch of sadness at the end of an era. This is the start of a new adventure for children playing and interacting with new friends sharing, taking turns and settling into a new routine.But of course, this is not the start of your child’s education which in fact began at birth. Back then, you would have been your child’s most influential teachers. During this time at home, your child would have learnt more than at any other period in their life. During your child’s first year in school much time will be spent in learning to read and they need to know that this is fun and worthwhile. Your child will naturally copy you so it is important that you are seen reading and enjoying books newspapers and magazines rather than just absorbed in screens. Ultimately an excellent education should be a close partnership between parents and teachers. A child’s year splits fairly neatly into thirds: a 3rd at school, a 3rd asleep and a third awake at home or on holiday.Irrespec tive of the quality of a school a child‘s home life is of key importance. It is the determining factor of their academic success. Your child may have started on a new journey but your work is far from finished.Question 22: How do parents feel when their children start going to school? Question 23: What does the passage say about children’s education?Question 24: What should parents do for the success of their children’s education?Question 25: What does the passage say is the key factor of loinbo’s academic success?Section A1. C) Set up a mobile phone network on the moon.2. A) It is stable.3. B) No injuries were yet reported.4. B) Pull down the deserted shopping mall.5. D) Insufficient potato supply.6. C) It is afraid of the spread of disease.7. A) Global warming.Section B8. C) Dull9. D) she takes notes10. A) it keeps her mind active11. B) it helps her better remember what she learns.12. A) To spend her honeymoon.13. A) In memory of a princess.14. D) It has walls decorated with jewels.15. B) They are mostly crowded.Section C16. C) They provide residents with the resources they need.17. B) By inspiring their creativity.18. D) Their number increased modestly.19. C) It is an unusual cross breed.20. A) They are as loyal as dogs.21. C) They shower with them22. D) Excited but somewhat sad.23. D) It starts the moment they are born.24. D) Set a good example for them to follow.25. B) Their home life.选词填空Millions……26-30 F B M D G31-35 E H K I OA) abilityB) associatedC) consciouslyD) constantE) controlF) damageG) describedH) equalsI) exclusivelyJ) innovatedK) regularlyL) relatesM) sourcesN) undermineO) vehicles段落匹配Food-as-Medicine……36-40 D B G A I41-45 F C J E G仔细阅读Passage One—California……46-50 B B A D CPassage Two—The AlphaGo program's victory……51-55 D C B A C翻译一【中文原文】由于通信网络的快速发展，中国智能手机用户数量近年来以惊人的速度增长。

2018年12月大学英语四级真题完整版（第3套）Part I Writing (30 minutes)Directions: For this part，you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of studying abroad. You should write at least 120 words but no more than180 words.PartⅡListening Comprehension (25 minutes)Part ⅢReading Comprehension ( 40 minutes)Section ADirections:In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once．Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.Have you ever used email to apologize to a colleague?Delivered a 26to a subordinate (下属) with a voice-mail message? Flown by plane across the country just to deliver important news in person? The various communication options at our fingertips today can be good for 27and productivity---and at the same time very troublesome. With so many ways to communicate, how should a manager choose the one that’s best --- 28when the message to be delivered is bad or unwelcome news for the recipient? We’ve 29business communication consultants and etiquette (礼仪) experts to come up with the following guidelines for 30using the alterative ways of delivering difficult messages.First of all, choose how personal you want to be. A face-to-face communication is the most 31 .Other choices, in descending order of personalization, are: a real-time phone call, a voice-mail message, a handwritten note, a typewritten letter, and the most 32is email. Some of these may change order according to the 33 situation or your own preferences; for example, a handwritten note might seem more personal than voice mail. How do you decide on the best choice for the difficult message you’ve got to deliver? “My 34concern is: How can I soften or civilize this message?” says etiquette expert Dana Casperson. “So when I apologize, I usually choose in-person first, or a phone conversation as my top alternative, and maybe a handwritten note next. Apologizing by email is something I now totally 35.”A) avoid E) intimate I) reward M) unfriendlyB) convenience F) particularly J) silent N) warningC) effectively G) primary K) specific O) witnessedD) escape H) prompt L) surveyedSection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.How a Poor, Abandoned Parisian Boy Became a Top Chef? [A] The busy streets in Paris were uneven and caked in thick mud, but there was always a breathtaking sight to see in the shop windows of Patisserie de la Rue de la Paix. By 1814, people crowded outside the bakery, straining for a glimpse of the latest sweet food created by the young chef who worked inside.[B] His name was Marie-Antoine Careme, and he had appeared, one day, almost out of nowhere. But in his short lifetime, which ended exactly 181 years ago today, he would forever revolutionize French gourmet food (美食) write best-selling cook books and think up magical dishes for royals and other important people.[C] Careme’s childhood was one part tragedy, equal part mystery. Born the 16th child to poor parents in Paris in either 1783 or 1784, a young Careme was suddenly abandoned at the height of the French Revolution. At 8 years old, he worked as a kitchen boy for a restaurant in Paris in exchange for room and board. By age 15, he had become an apprentice (学徒) to Sylvain Bailly, a well-known dessert chef with a successful bakery in one of Paris’s most fashionable neighborhoods.[D] Careme was quick at learning in the kitchen. Bailly encouraged his young apprentice to learn to read and write. Careme would often spend his free afternoons at the nearby National Library reading books on art and architecture. In the back room of the little bakery, his interest in design and his baking talent combined to work wonders he shaped delicious masterpieces out of flour, butter and sugar.[E] In his teenage years, Careme fashioned eatable copies of the late 18th century’s most famous buildings---cookies in the shape of ruins of ancient Athens and pies in the shape of ancient Chinese palaces and temples. Sylvain Bailly, his master, displayed these luxuriant creations---often as large as 4 feet tall---in his bakery windows.[F]Careme creations soon captured the discriminating eye of a French diplomat,Charles Maurice de Talleyrand- Perigord. Around 1804, Talleyrand challenged Careme to produce a full menu for his Personal castle, instating e young baker to use local season fruits and vegetables and to avoid repeating main dishes over the course of an entire year. The experiment was a grand success and Talleyrand’s association with French nobility would prove a profitable connection for Careme.[G] French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was known to be unimpressed by the declining taste of early 18th century cooking, but under pressure to entertain Paris’s high society, he too called Careme to his kitchen at Tuileries Palace. In 1810, Careme designed the extraordinary cake for the wedding of Napoleon and his second bride, Marie-luise of Austria. He became one of the first modern chefs to focus on the appearance of his table, not just the flavor of his dishes. “I want order and taste, A well-displayed meal is enhanced one hundred percent in my eyes,” he later wrote in one of his cook books[H] In 1816, Careme begin a culinary (烹饪的) journey which would forever mark his place as history’s first top chef. He voyaged to England to cook in the modern Great Kitchen of the prince regent (摄政王) George IV, and crossed continents to prepare grand banquets for the tables of Tsar Alexander I of Russia. Never afraid to talk up his own accomplishments, boastful Careme made a fortune as wealthy families with social ambitions invited him to their kitchens. Later, in his cook books, he would often include a sketch of himself, so that people on the street would be able to recognize---and admire---him.[I] Careme’s cooking displays became the symbol of fine French dining; they were plentiful, beautiful and imposing. Guests would fall silent in wonder as servants carried Careme’s fancy creations into the dining hall. For a banquet celebrating the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia’s visit to George IV’s Brighton Pavilion on Jan. 18, 1817, the menu featured 120 different dishes, highlighting eight different soups 40 main courses, and 32 desserts[J] As he traveled through the homes of early 19th century nobility, Careme forged the new art of French gourmet food. Locked in hot kitchens, Careme created his four “mother sauces.” These sauces --- bechamel, veloute, espagnole and allemande---formed the central building blocks for many French main courses. He also perfected the soufflé---a baked egg dish, and introduced the standard chef’s uniform---the same double-breasted white coat and tall white hat still worn by many chefs today. The white clothing conveyed an image of cleanliness, according to Careme---and in his realm, appearance was everything.[K]Between meals, Careme wrote cook books that would be used in European kitchens for the next century. His manuals including The Royal Parisian Baker and the massive five-volume Art of French Cooking Series (1833-1847 completed after his death) first systematized many basic principles of cooking, complete with drawings and step-by-step directions. Long before television cooking shows, Careme walked readers through common kitchen tasks, instructing them to “try this for yourself, at home” as famous American Chef Jullia Child might do, many years later,[L] In the end, however, it was the kitchen that did Careme in. Decades of working over coal fires in tight, closed spaces with little fresh air (to ensure his dishes would not getcold) had fatally damaged his lungs. On Jan. 12, 1833, Careme died just before he turned 50.[M] But in his lifetime, Careme, ever confident, could see beyond his short domination in the kitchen. He wanted to “set the standard for beauty in classical and modern cooking, and prove to the distant future that the French chefs of the 19th century were the most famous in the world,” as he wrote in his papers36. Careme was among the first chefs who stressed both the appearance and flavor of dishes.37. Careme wanted to show to later generations that French chefs of his time were most outstanding in the world.38. Careme benefited greatly from serving a French diplomat and his connections.39. Careme learned his trade from a famous dessert chef in Paris.40. Careme’s creative works were exhibited in the shop windows by his master..41. Careme’s knowledge of art and architecture helped him create extraordinary desserts out of ordinary ingredient.42. Many people in Paris were eager to have a look at the latest sweet food made by Careme.43. Careme become extremely wealthy by cooking for rich and socially ambitious families.44. Careme’s writing dealt with fundamental cooking principles in a systematic way.45. Careme’s contribution to French cooking was revolutionary.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.Roughly the size of a soda can sitting on a bookshelf, a relatively harmless gadget may be turning friends away from your home. The elephant in your living room is your Internet-connected security camera, a device people are increasingly using for peace of mind in their homes. But few stop to think about the effect these devices may have on house guests. Should you tell your friends, for instance, that they’re being recorded while you all watch the big game together?“It’s certainly new territory, especially as home security cameras become easier to install,” says Lizzie Post, president of the Emily Post Institute, America’s foremost manners advisors. “I think it will be very interesting to see what etiquette (礼仪) emerges in terms of whether you tell people you have a camera or not, and whether guests have a right to ask that it be turned off, if it's not a security issue.”Post wants to make clear that shes not talking about legal rights, but rather personalpreferences. She also wants to explain that there are no right or wrong answers regarding manners on this front yet, because the technology is just now becoming mainstream. Besides, the Emily Post Institute doesn’t dictate manners.When it comes to security cameras, Post says it’s a host’s responsibility to make sure guests feel comfortable within their home. “I’m always a fan of being open and honest.” For instance, if the host casually acknowledges that there is a camera in the room by telling a story about it, that may be enough to provide an opening for a guest to say if they are uncomfortable.However, if a contractor is working in your home, you don’t need to tell them that there are cameras watching. Then again, the air of accountability that the camera generates can also work in contractors’ favor, “If anything does go wrong while they’re in the house, they don’t want to be blamed for it,” she says. “In fact, the camera could be the thing that proves that they didn’t steal the $20, or knock the vase off the table.”46. For what reason may your friends feel reluctant to visit your home?A) The security camera installed may intrude into their privacy.B) They don’t want their photos to be circulated on the Internet.C) The security camera may turn out to be harmful to their health.D) They may not be willing to interact with your family members47. What does Lizzie Post say is new territory?A) The effect of manners adviceB) Cost of applying new technologies at homeC) The increasing use of home security devicesD) Etiquette around home security cameras.48. What is Lizzie Post mainly discussing with regard to the use of home security cameras?A) Legal rightsB) Moral issuesC) Likes and dislikes of individuals.D) The possible impact on manners.49. What is a host’s responsibility regarding security cameras, according to Lizzie Post?A) Making their guests feel at easeB) Indicating where they areC) Turning them off in time.D) Ensuring their guests’ privacy.50. In what way can the home security camera benefit visitors to your home?A) It can satisfy their curiosity.B) It can prove their innocence.C) It can help them learn new technology.D) It can make their visit more enjoyable.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.PepsiCo is to spend billions of dollars to develop drinks and snacks and reformulate existing ones with lower sugar, salt and fat, as consumers demand healthier options and regulatory pressure intensifies amid an obesity epidemic（流行病）.The maker of Mountain Dew and Gatorade has been one of the earlier movers in the industry to offer products with reduced levels of unhealthy ingredients---PepsiCo claims a packet of its chips now contains less salt than a slice of white bread. However, its new 10-year plan makes clear it believes it still has a long way to go.Shifting eating habits, including a sharp drop in consumption of sparkling drinks, have forced radical change on the industry. But those shifts have yet to be reflected in record obesity levels, which stand at 36.5% overall in the US.Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo chairman, said the plan to make its products healthier was important for the company’s growth. But on the subject of obesity, she pointed out that consumers’ lifestyles have changed significantly, with many people being more sedentary（久坐不动的）not least because more time is spent in front of computers. She said PepsiCo’s contribution was to produce healthier snacks that still tasted good.Society has to change its habits, she added. “We can’t do much to alter sedentary lifestyles, but we can provide consumers with great-tasting products, low in salt, sugar and fat. In the past we had to have a taste trade-off. But were breaking that trade-off.”PepsiCo’s plan for its foods and drinks is based on guidelines from the World Health Organization, which last week backed using taxes on sparkling drinks to reduce sugar consumption. Initiatives also include efforts to reduce its environmental impact, water consumption and materials used in packaging by 2025.PepsiCo did not say exactly how much it planned to invest to reach its goals. However, Dr. Mehmood Khan, chief scientific officer, said the company had doubled research and development spending in the past five years and was “committed to sustaining investment”, adding that companies cannot cost-cut their way to increasing sales. PepsiCo’s research and development budget in 2015 was $754 million.51. Why is PepsiCo making a policy change?A) To win support from the federal government.B) To be more competitive in the global marketC) To satisfy the growing needs for healthy foodsD) To invest more wisely in the soft drink industry.52. What does PepsiCo think it will have to do in the future?A) Invest more to develop new snacksB) Reduce levels of obesity in the US.C) Change consumers’ eating habitsD) Keep on improving its products.53. Why does PepsiCo plan to alter its products, according to Indra Nooyi?A) To ensure the company’s future developmentB) To adapt to its customers’ changed tasteC) To help improve its consumers’ lifestylesD) To break the trade-off in its product design54. What does Indra Nooyi say about the obesity epidemic?A) It is mainly caused by overconsumption of snacksB) It results from high sugar and salt consumptionC) It is attributable to people’s changed lifestylesD) It has a lot to do with longer working hours55. What has PepsiCo been doing to achieve its obesity?A) Studying WHO’s guidelines.B) Increasing its research funding.C) Expanding its market overseasD) Cutting its production costs.Part ⅣTranslation (30 minutes) Directions:For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.越来越多的中国人现在的确离不开手机了。

2018年12月大学英语四级考试真题及详解（第三套）Part ⅠWriting (30 minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of starting a career after graduation. You should write at least120 words but no more than 180 words.【参考范文】As for fresh-faced graduates, the beginning of new chapter in careers may seem exciting, but challenges will also come along and sometimes this could be very overwhelming.Lack of direction may be the first problem to face. Many students fail to plan out their future career during college years and usually have few relevant work experiences and internships. Knowing little about jobs and related industries, they may get very exhausted picking the right career path for themselves. Besides, it could be hard for these jobseekers to differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowd and for most students; failures in job interviews are inevitable. In this situation, they should let go of the negative feelings and make some adjustments. Last but not least, when starting a new job, they have to quickly adapt to new cultures of companies and catch up to the rest of the teams.Although the transition from college to the career world is hard, we should stay confident and keep moving forward.Part Ⅱ Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)特别说明：四级考试每次仅考两套听力，第三套听力试题同第一套或第二套试题。

2018年12月四级考试真题（第三套）Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of starting a career after graduation. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)Section A．Directions: In th· is section, you will hear three news reports. A t the end of each news report, you will hear two or three questions.Both the news report and the questions will be spoken only once.After you hear a question, you must choose theen mar e corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with best answer from the four choices marked A) , B) , C) and D) . Th k tha single line through the centre.说明：2018年12月四级真题全国共考了两套听力。

本套的听力内容与第二套的完全一样，只是选项的顺序不一样而巳，故在本套中不再重复给出。

Part ill Reading Comprehension (40 minutes) Section ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. Yo u are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage.Read the passage through carefully before making your choices.Each choice in the bank is ident加d by a letter: Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet2 with a single line through the centre. Yo u may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.A few months ago, I was down with a terrible cold which ended in a persistent bad cough. No matter how many different 26 I tried, I still couldn't get rid of the cough. Not only did it 27 my teaching but also my life as a whole. Then one day after class, a student came up to me and 28 traditional Chinese medicine. From her description, Chinese medicine sounded as if it had magic power that worked wonders. I was 29 because I knew so little about it and have never tried it before. Eventually, my cough got so much 30 that I couldn't sleep at night, so I decided to give it a try. The Chinese doctor took my pulse and asked to see my tongue, both of which were new 31 to me because they are both non-existent in Western medicine. Then the doctor gave me a scraping (刮）treatment known as "Gua Sha". I was a little 32 at first because he used a smooth edged tool to scrape the skin on my neck and shoulders. A few minutes later, the 33 strokes started to produce a relieving effect and my body and mind began to 34 deeper into relaxation. I didn't feel any improvement in my condition in the first couple of days, but after a few more regular visits to the doctor, my cough started to 35 . Then, within a matter of weeks, it was completely gone!A)deepen B) e xperiences C)hesitantD)" mconvemence E) l essen F) l icensesG) p ressured H) r ecommended!)remediesJ) s cared K) s ensitive L) s inkM) t emporary N)tremble O)worseSection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. I dentify the paragraph from which the information i.s derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once.Each paragraph is marked with a letter.Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Is it really OK to eat food that's fallen on the floor?A) W hen you drop a piece of food on the floor, is it really OK to eat if you pick it up within five seconds? An urban food myth contends that if food spends just a few seconds on the floor, dirt and germs won't have much of a chance to contaminate it. Research in my lab has focused on how food becomes contaminated, and we've done some work on this particular piece of wisdom.B)W怕le the "five-second rule" might not seem like the most pressing issue for food scientists to get to the bottom of, it's still worth investigating food myths like this one because they shape our beliefs about when food is safe to eat.C) S o is five seconds on the floor the critical threshold (门槛）that separates a piece of eatable food from a case of food poisoning? It's a bit more complicated than that. It depends on just how many bacteria can make it from floor to food in a few seconds and just how dirty the floor is.D) W ondering if food is still OK to eat after it's dropped on the floor is a pretty common experience. And it's probably not a new one either. A well-known, but inaccurate, story about Julia Child may have contributed to this food myth. Some viewers of her cooking show, The French Chef, insist they saw Child drop lamb on the floor and pick it up, with the advice that if they were alone in the kitchen, their guests would never know.E) I n fact it was a potato pancake, and it fell on the stovetop, not on the floor. Child put it back in the pan, saying, "But you can always pick it up and if you're alone in the kitchen, who's going to see it?" But the misremembered story persists. It's harder to pin down the origins of the oft-quoted five-second rule, but a 2003 study reported that 70% of women and 56% of men surveyed were familiar with the five-second rule and that women were more likely than men to eat food that had dropped on the floor.F) S o what does science tell us about what a few moments on the floor means for the safety of you food? The earliest research report on the five-second rule is attributed to Jillian Clarke, a high school student participating in aresearch project at the University of Illinois.Clarke and her colleagues introduced bacteria to floor tiles (瓷砖）and then placed cookies on the tiles for varying times. They reported bacteria were transferred from the tiles to the cookies within five seconds, but didn't report the specific amount of bacteria that made it from the tiles to the food.G)But how many bacteria actually transfer in five seconds? In 2007, my lab at Clemson University published a study in the Journal of Applied Microbiology. We wanted to know if the length of time food is in contact with a contaminated surface affected the rate of transfer of bacteria to the food. To find out, we introduced bacteria to squares of tile, carpet or wood.Five minutes after that, we placed either bacon or bread on the surface for 5, 30 or 60 seconds, and then measured the number of bacteria transferred to the food. W e repeated this exact procedure after the bacteria had been on the surface for 2, 4, 8 and 24 hoursH) W e found that the number of bacteria transferred to either kind of food didn't depend much on how long the food was in contact with the contaminated surface—whether for a few seconds or for a whole minute. The overall number of bacteria on the surface mattered more, and this decreased over time after the initial introduction. It looks like what's at issue is less how long your food stays on the floor and much more how contaminated with bacteria that patch of floor happens to be.I) W e also found that the kind of surface made a difference as well. Carpets, for instance, seem to be slightly better places to drop your food than wood or tile. When a carpet was contaminated, less than 1 %of the bacteria were transferred.But when the food was in contact with tile or wood, 48-70% of bacteria were.J) L ast year, a study from Aston University in the UK used nearly identical parameters (参数）to our study and found similar results. They also reported that 87 %of people asked either would eat or had eaten food fallen on the floor. K) Should you eat food fallen on the floor then? From a food safety standpoint, if you have millions or more bacteria on a surface, 0.1 %is still enough to make you sick. Also, certain types of bacteria are extremely harmful, and it takes only a small number to make you sick. For example, 10 bacteria or less of an especially deadly strain of bacteria can cause severe illness and death in people with compromised immune systems. B ut the chance of these bacteria being on most surfaces is very low.L) A nd it's not just dropping food on the floor that can lead to bacterial contamination.Bacteria are carried by various "media", which can include raw food, moist surfaces where bacteria have been left, our hands or skin and from coughing or sneezing (打喷咙）. Hands, foods and utensils (器皿）can carry individual bacteria living in communities contained within a protective film. These microscopic layers of deposits containing bacteria are known as biofilms and they are found on most surfaces and objects. Biofilm communities can harbor bacteria longer and are very difficult to clean. Becteria in these communities also have an enhanced resistance to sanit也ers(清洁剂）and antibiotics compared to bacteria living on their own.M) S o the next time you consider eating fallen food, the odds are in your favor that you can eat it without getting sick. But in the rare chance that there is a micro-organism that can make you sick on the exact spot where the food dropped, you can be fairly sure that the bug is on the food you are about to put in your mouth.N) R esearch or common sense tells us that the best thing to do is keep your hands, utensils and other surfaces clean.36.A research project found bacteria made their way to the food on the floor in five seconds.37. W hether food is contaminated depends much on the number of bacteria that get onto it.38.Food contamination may result from various factors other than food dropping on the floor.39.Males are less likely than females to eat food that may have been contaminated.40. T he author's research centers around how food gets contaminated.41.Keeping everything clean is the best way to stay healthy.42.Chances are you will not fall sick because of eating food picked up from the floor.43.For a long time people have had the experience of deciding whether or not to eat food picked up from the floor.44.Some strains of bacteria are so harmful that a tiny few can have deadly consequences.45.Researchers found how many bacteria got onto the food did not have much to do with how long the food stayed ona contaminated floor.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. E ach passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. Fo r each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) a nd D). Yo u should decide on the best choice and markthe corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.The latest in cat research reveals that the lovely animal seems to have a basic grasp on both the laws of physics and the ins and outs of cause and effect.According to a newly published study, cats seem to be able to predict the location of hiding prey (猎物）using both their ears and an inborn(天生的）understanding of how the physical world works.In a recent experiment, Japanese researchers taped 30 domestic cats reacting to a container that a te皿member shook. S ome containers rattled (发出响声）；others did not. W hen the con血ner tipped over, sometimes an object fell out and sometimes it didn't.It turns out that the cats were remarkably smart about what would happen when a container was tipped over. When an object did not drop out of the bottom of a rattling container, they looked at it for a longer time than they did when the container behaved as expected."Cats use a causal-logical understanding of noise or sounds to predict the appearance of invisible objects," lead researcher Saho Takagi says in a press release. T he researchers conclude that cats'hunting style may have developed based on their common-sense abilities to infer where prey is, using their hearing.Scientists have explored this idea with other endearing creatures: babies. L ike cats, babies appear to engage in what's called "preferential looking"—looking longer at things that are interesting or unusual than things they perceiveas normal.When babies'expectations are violated in experiments like the ones performed with the cats, they react much like their animal friends.Psychologists have shown that babies apparently expect their world to comply with the laws of physics and cause and effect as early as two months of age.Does the study mean that cats will soon grasp the ins and outs of cause and effect? Maybe. Okay, s o cats may not be the next physics faculty members at America's most important research universities. But by demonstrating their common sense, they've shown that the divide between cats and humans may not be that great after all.46. What do we learn from a newly published study about cats?A) They can be trained to understand the physical world.B) They know what kind of prey might be easier to hunt.C) They have a natural ability to locate animals they hunt.D) They are capable of telling which way their prey flees.47.What may account for the cats'response to the noise from the containers?A) Their inborn sensitivity to noise.C) Their special ability to perceive. B) Their unusual sense of direction.D) Their mastery of cause and effect.48. W hat is characteristic of the way cats hunt, according to the Japanese researchers?A) They depend on their instincts.C) They wait some time before attack.49.In what way do babies behave like cats?A) They focus on what appears odd.C) They do what they prefer to do.50. W hat can we conclude about cats from the passage?A) They have higher intelligence than many other animals.B) They interact with the physical world much like humans.C) They display extraordinarily high intelligence in hunting.D) They can aid physics professors in their research work.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage. B) They rely mainly on their hearing.D) They use both their ears and eyes.B) They view the world as normal. D) They are curious about everything.Imagine you enter a car with no steering wheel, no brake or accelerator pedals (踏板）. Under a voice-activated command, you say an address. "The fastest route will take us 15.3 minutes. Should I take it?" You say "yes" and you are on your way. T he car responds and starts moving all by itself. All you have to do is sit back and relax.How weird would it be if, one day in the future, everyone had such a car? No crazy driving, no insults, no cutting in; traffic laws would be respected and driving much safer. O n the other hand, imagine the cost savings for local police enforcement and town budgets without all those speeding and parking tickets.A new technology has the potential to change modem society in radical ways.There's no question that self-driving vehicles could be an enormous benefit. T he potential for safer cars means accident statistics would drop: some 94% of road accidents in the U.S. involve human error. Older drivers and visually-or physically-impaired people would gain a new level of freedom. Maintaining safe speeds and being electric, self-driving cars would drastically reduce pollution levels and dependency on non-renewable fuels.Roads would be quieter, people safer.But we must also consider the impact of the new technology on those who now depend on driving for their livelihoods. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in May 2015 there were 505, 660 registered school bus drivers. T he American Trucking Association lists approximately 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the U.S ..The companies developing self-driving vehicles should be partnering with state and federal authorities to offerretraining for this massive workforce, many of whom will be displaced by the new technology. This is similar to what's happening in the coal and oil industries, a situation that fuels much of the current political discontent in this country.New technologies will, and should, be developed. T his is how society moves forward. However, progress can't be one-sided. It is necessary for the companies and state agencies involved to consider the ethical consequences of these potential changes to build a better future for all.61. W hat would be the impact of the extensive use of driverless cars?A) People would be driving in a more civilized way.B) It would save local governments a lot of money.C) More policemen would be patrolling the streets.D) Traffic regulations would be a thing of the past.52.How would the elderly and the disabled benefit from driverless cars?A) They could enjoy greater mobility.C) They would have no trouble driving.B) They would suffer no road accidents.D) They could go anywhere they want.53.What would be the negative impact of driverless cars?A) The conflict between labor and management would intensify.B) The gap between various sectors of society would be widened.C) Professional drivers would have a hard time adapting to new road conditions.D)Numerous professional drivers would have to find new ways of earning a living.54. W hat is the result of the introduction of new technologies in energy industries?A)Political dissatisfaction.C) Fossil fuel conservation.B) Retraining of employees.D) Business restructuring.55.What does the author suggest businesses and the government do?A)Keep pace with technological developments.B) Make new technologies affordable to everyone.C) Enable everyone to benefit from new technologies.D) Popularize the use of new technologies and devicesPart IV Translation (30 minutes) Directions: For t如s part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.过去几年里，移动支付市场在中国蓬勃发展。

2018年12月四级真题（第三套）参考答案Part I Writing (30 minutes)【范文】On the challenges of starting a career after graduationOwing to the increasingly fierce competition in the job market and the change of employment concept, a growing group of graduates choose to start a business once they earn their diplomas.It’s evident to all that the government encourages the graduates to do the self-employment and offers some policies or conveniences to them, such as lending loan and subsidy and reducing tax. However, considering the actual operation of a company, such support is far from enough, because starting a career, especially for new graduates, will be inevitably confronted with numerous challenges. Firstly, the main one confronting budding entrepreneurs is a dearth of practical business models and a more realistic understanding of the market, which is the reason why the majority of them fail within the first two years. Secondly, a lack of funds has long been one of the biggest obstacles for the development of such start-ups. Furthermore, these entrepreneurs have no guaranteed wages during the start-up phase that will undoubtedly increase their financial and psychological burden. Thirdly, as green hands in their industries, it’s more challenging for them to find business partners, investors and suppliers, which may depress them.Anyway, those who choose to start a career after graduation are bound to encounter more difficulties than they expected. Therefore, it is essential for them to make adequate preparations in mind and in action. Meanwhile, more support from the government and the whole society should also be given to help these young entrepreneurs.Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)特别说明：由于四级考试全国共考了两套听力，本套真题听力与前两套内容相同，只是选项顺序不同，故不再重复给出。

2018年12月英语四级阅读理解真题及答案解析第三套Section ADirections:In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank ismiddle-income countries live in places where they 33 experience dangerous levels of outdoor air pollution.But the problem is not limited 34 to the developing world. Thousands die prematurely in the U.S. as a result of related illnesses. In many European countries, where diesel(柴油) 35 have become more common in recent years, that number reaches tens of thousands.(A) ability (B) associated (C) consciously (D) constant (E) control (F) damag (G) described (H) equals (I) exclusively (J) innovated (K) regularly (L) relates (M) sources (N) undermine (O) vehiclesSection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Food-as-Medicine Movement Is Witnessing Progress[A] Several times a month, you can find a doctor in the aisles of Ralph’s market in Huntington Beach, California, wearing a white coat and helping people learn about food. On one recent day, this doctor was Daniel Nadeau, wandering the cereal aisle with Allison Scott, giving her some idea on how to feed kids who persistently avoid anything that is healthy. “Have you thought about trying fresh juices in the morning?” he asks her. “The frozen oranges and apples are a little cheaper, and fruits are really good for the brain. Juices are quick and easy to prepare, you can take the frozen fruit out the night before and have it ready the next morning.”[B] Scott is delighted to get food advice from a physician who is program director of the nearby Mary and Dick Allen Diabetes Center, part of the St. Joseph Hoag Health alliance. The center’s ‘Shop with Your Doc’ program sends doctors to the grocery store to meet with any patients who sign up for the service, plus any other shoppers who happen to be around with questions.[C] Nadeau notices the pre-made macaroni (通心粉)-and-cheese boxes in Scott’s shopping cart and suggests she switch to whole grain macaroni and real cheese. “So I’d have to make it?”she asks, her enthusiasm fading at the thought of how long that might take, just to have her kids reject it. “I’m not sure they’d eat it. They just won’t eat it.”[D] Nadeau says sugar and processed foods are big contributors to the rising diabetes rates among children. “In America, over 50 percent of our food is processed food,”Nadeau tells her. “And only 5 percent of our food i s plant-based food. I think we should try to reverse that.” Scott agrees to try more fruit juices for the kids and to make real macaroni and cheese. Score one point for the doctor, zero for diabetes.[E] Nadeau is part of a small revolution developing across California. The food-as-medicine movement has been around for decades, but it’s making progress as physicians and medical institutions make food a formal part of treatment, rather than relying solely on medications (药物). By prescribing nutritional changes or launching programs such as ‘Shop with your Doc’, they are trying to prevent, limit or even reverse disease by changing what patients eat. “There’s no question people can take things a long way toward reversing diabetes, reversing high blood pressure, even preventing cancer by food choices,” Nadeau says.[F] In the big picture, says Dr. Richard Afable, CEO and president of ST. Joseph Hoag Health, medical institutions across the state are starting to make a philosophical switch to becoming a health organization, not just a health care organization. That feeling echoes the beliefs of the Therapeutic Food Pantry program at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, which completed its pilot phase and is about to expand on an ongoing basis to five clinic sites throughout the city. The program will offer patients several bags of food prescribed for their condition, along with intensive training in how to cook it. “We really want to link food and medicine, and not just give away food,” says Dr. Rita Nguyen, th e hospital’s medical director of Healthy Food Initiatives. “We want people to understand what they’re eating, how to prepare it, the role food plays in their lives.”[G] In Southern California, Loma Linda University School of Medicine is offering specialized training for its resident physicians in Lifestyle Medicine — that is a formal specialty in using food to treat disease. Research findings increasingly show the power of food to treat or reverse diseases, but that does not mean that diet alone is always the solution, or that every illness can benefit substantially from dietary changes. Nonetheless, physicians say that they look at the collective data and a clear picture emerges: that the salt, sugar, fat and processed foods in the American diet contribute to the nation’s high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. According to the World Health Organization, 80 percent of deaths from heart disease and stroke are caused byhigh blood pressure, tobacco use, elevated cholesterol and low consumption of fruits and vegetables.[H] “It’s a different paradigm(范式) of how to treat disease,” says Dr. Brenda Rea, who helps run the family and preventive medicine residency program at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. The lifestyle medicine specialty is designed to train doctors in how to prevent and treat disease, in part, by changing patients’ nutritional habits. The medical center and school at Loma Linda also has a food cupboard and kitchen for patients. This way, patients not only learn about which foods to buy, but also how to prepare them at home.[I] Many people don’t know how to cook, Rea says, and they only know how to heat things up. That means depending on packaged food with high salt and sugar content. So teaching people about which foods are healthy and how to prepare them, she says, can actually transform a patient’s life. And beyond that, it might transform the health and lives of that patient’s family. “What people eat can be medicine or poison,” Rea says. “As a physician, nutrition is one of t he most powerful things you can change to reverse the effects of long-term disease.”[J] Studies have explored evidence that dietary changes can slow inflammation(炎症), for example, or make the body inhospitable to cancer cells. In general, many lifestyle medicine physicians recommend a plant-based diet —particularly for people with diabetes or other inflammatory conditions.[K] “As what happened with tobacco, this will require a cultural shift, but that can happen,” says Nguyen. “In the same way physicians used to smoke, and then stopped smoking and were able to talk to patients about it, I think physicians can have a bigger voice in it.”36. More than half of the food Americans eat is factory-produced.37. There is a special program that assigns doctors to give advice to shoppers in food stores.38. There is growing evidence from research that food helps patients recover from various illnesses.39. A healthy breakfast can be prepared quickly and easily.40. Training a patient to prepare healthy food can change their life.41. One food-as-medicine program not only prescribes food for treatment but teaches patients how to cook it.42. Scott is not keen on cooking food herself, thinking it would simply be a waste of time.43. Diabetes patients are advised to eat more plant-based food.44. Using food as medicine is no novel idea, but the movement is making headway these days.45. Americans’ high rates of various illnesses result from the way they eat.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneCalifornia has been facing a drought for many years now, with certain areas even having to pump freshwater hundreds of miles to their distribution system. The problem is growing as the population of the state continues to expand. New research has found deep water reserves under the state which could help solve their drought crisis. Previous drilling of wells could only reach depths of 1,000 feet, but due to new pumping practices, water deeper than this can now be extracted (抽取). The team at Stanford investigated the aquifers(地下蓄水层)below this depth and found that reserves may be triple what was previously thought.It is profitable to drill to depths more than 1,000 feet for oil and gas extraction, but only recently in California has it become profitable to pump water from this depth. The aquifers range from 1,000 to 3,000 feet below the ground, which means that pumping will be expensive and there are other concerns. The biggest concern of pumping out water from this deep in the gradual settling down of the land surface. As the water is pumped out, the vacant space left is compacted by the weight of the earth above. Even though pumping from these depths is expensive, it is still cheaper thandesalinating(脱盐)the ocean water in the largely coastal state. Some desalination plants exist where feasible, but they are costly to run and can need constant repairs. Wells are much more reliable sources of freshwater, and California is hoping that these deep wells may be the answer to their severe water shortage.One problem with these sources is that the deep water also has a higher level of salt than shallower aquifers. This means that some wells may even need to undergo desalination after extraction, thus increasing the cost. Research from the exhaustive study of groundwater from over 950 drilling logs has just been published. New estimates of the water reserves now go up to 2,700 billion cubic meters of freshwater.46.How could California’s drought crisis be solved according to some researchers?A) By building more reserves of groundwater.B) By drawing water from the depths of the earth.C) By developing more advanced drilling devices.D) By upgrading its water distribution system.47.What can be inferred about extracting water from deep aquifers?A) It was deemed vital to solving the water problem.B) It was not considered worth the expense.C) It may not provide quality freshwater.D) It is bound to gain support from the local people.48. What is mentioned as a consequence of extracting water from deep underground?A) The sinking of land surface. C) The damage to aquifers.B) The harm to the ecosystem. D) The change of the climate.49. What does the author say about deep wells?A) They run without any need for repairs.B) They are entirely free from pollutants.C) They are the ultimate solution to droughts.D) They provide a steady supply of freshwater.50. What may happen when deep aquifers are used as water sources?A) People’s health may improve with cleaner water.B) People’s water bills may be lowered considerably.C) The cost may go up due to desalination.D) They may be exhausted sooner or later.Passage TwoThe AlphaGo program’s victory is an example of how smart computers have become. But can artificial intelligence (AI) machines act ethically, meaning can they be honest and fair?One example of AI is driverless cars. They are already on California roads, so it is not too soon to ask whether we can program a machine to act ethically. As driverless cars improve, they will save lives. They will make fewer mistakes than human drivers do. Sometimes, however, they will face a choice between lives. Should the cars be programmed to avoid hitting a child running across the road, even if that will put their passengers at risk? What about making a sudden turn to avoid a dog? What if the only risk is damage to the car itself, not to the passengers?Perhaps there will be lessons to learn from driverless cars, but they are not super-intelligent beings. Teaching ethics to a machine even more intelligent than we are will be the bigger challenge.About the same time as AlphaGo’s triumph, Microsoft’s ‘chatbot’ took a bad turn. The software, named Taylor, was designed to answer messages from people aged 18-24. Taylor was supposed to be able to learn from the messages she received. She was designed to slowly improve her ability to handle conversations, but some people were teaching Taylor racist ideas. When she started saying nice things about Hitler, Microsoft turned her off and deleted her ugliest messages.AlphaGo’s victory and Taylor’s defeat happened at about the same time. This should be a warning to us. It is one thing to use AI within a game with clear rules and clear goals. It is something very different to use AI in the real world. The unpredictability of the real world may bring to the surface a troubling software problem.Eric Schmidt is one of the bosses of Google, which own AlphoGo. He thinks AI will be positive for humans. He said people will be the winner, whatever the outcome. Advances in AI will make huma n beings smarter, more able and “just better human beings.”51.What does the author want to show with the example of AlphaGo’s victory?A)Computers will prevail over human beings.B)Computers have unmatched potential.C)Computers are man’s potential rivals.D)Computers can become highly intelligent.52.What does the author mean by AI machines acting ethically?A)They are capable of predicting possible risks.B)They weigh the gains and losses before reaching a decision.C)They make sensible decisions when facing moral dilemmas.D)They sacrifice everything to save human lives.53.What is said to be the bigger challenge facing humans in the AI age?A)How to make super-intelligent AI machines share human feelings.B)How to ensure that super-intelligent AI machines act ethically.C)How to prevent AI machines doing harm to humans.D)How to avoid being over-dependent on AI machines.54.What do we learn about Microsoft’s ‘chatbot’ Taylor?A)She could not distinguish good from bad.B)She could turn herself off when necessary.C)She was not made to handle novel situations.D)She was good at performing routine tasks.55. What does Eric Schmidt think of artificial intelligence?A) It will be far superior to human beings.B) It will keep improving as time goes by.C) It will prove to be an asset to human beings.D) It will be here to stay whatever the outcome.答案：26-35 FBMDGEHKIO 36-45 DBGFI FCJEG46-55 BBADC DCBAC。

2018年12月大学英语四级考试真题试卷完整版附答案（第3套）（此文档分二部分：真题试卷、答案）一、真题试卷Part I Writing (30minutes)Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of starting a career after graduation. You should write at least120 words but no more than 180 words._______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)说明：由于2018年12月四级考试全国共考了2套听力，第3套真题听力与前2套内容完全一样，只是顺序不一样，因此在第3套真题中不再重复出现。

（参考本公众号第1、2套试卷的听力）Part ⅢReading Comprehension ( 40 minutes )Section ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.Section BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.How a Poor, Abandoned Parisian Boy Became a Top ChefA) When you drop a piece of food on the floor, is it really OK to eat if you pick it up within five seconds? An urban food myth contends that if food spends just a few seconds on the floor, dirt and germs won’t have much of a chance to contaminate it. Research in my lab has focused on how food becomes contaminated, and we’ve done some work on this particular piece of wisdom.B) While the “five-second rule” might not seem like the most pressing issue for food scientists to get to the bottom of, it’s still worth investigating food myths like this one because they shape our beliefs about when food is safe to eat.C) So is five seconds on the floor the critical threshold（门槛）that separates a piece of eatable food from a case of food poisoning? It’s a bit more complicated than that. It depends on just how many bacteria can make it from floor to food in a few seconds and just how dirty the floor is.D) Wondering if food is still OK to eat after it’s dropped on the floor is a pretty common experience. And it’s probably not a new one either. A well-known, but inaccurate, story about Julia Child may have contributed to this food myth. Some viewers of her cooking show, The French Chef, insist they saw Child drop lamb on the floor and pick it up, with the advice that if they were alone in the kitchen, their guests would never know.E) In fact it was a potato pancake, and it fell on the stovetop, not on the floor. Child put it back in the pan, saying, “But you can always pick it up and if you’re alone in the kitchen, who’s going to see it?” But the misremembered story persists. It’s harder to pin down the origins of the oft-quoted five-second rule, but a 2003 study reported that 70% of women and 56% of men surveyed were familiar with the five-second rule and that women were more likely than men to eat food that had dropped on the floor.F) So what does science tell us about what a few moments on the floor means for the safetyof your food? The earliest research report on the five-second rule is attributed to Jillian Clarke, a high school student participating in a research project at the University of Illinois. Clarke and her colleagues introduced bacteria to floor tiles（瓷砖）and then placed cookies on the tiles for varying times. They reported bacteria were transferred from the tiles to the cookies within five seconds, but didn’t report the specific amount of bacteria that made it from the tiles to the food.G) But how many bacteria actually transfer in five seconds? In 2007, my lab at Clemson University published a study in the Journal of Applied Microbiology. We wanted to know if the length of time food is in contact with a contaminated surface affected the rate of transfer of bacteria to the food. To find out, we introduced bacteria to squares of tile, carpet or wood. Five minutes after that, we placed either bacon or bread on the surface for 5,30 or 60 seconds, and then measured the number of bacteria transferred to the food. We repeated this exact procedure after the bacteria had been on the surface for 2,4,8 and 24 hours.H) We found that the number of bacteria transferred to either kind of food didn’t depend much on how long the food was in contact with the contaminated surface—whether for a few seconds or for a whole minute. The overall number of bacteria on the surface mattered more, and this decreased over time after the initial introduction. It looks like what’s at issue is less how long your food stays on the floor and much more how contaminated with bacteria that patch of floor happens to be.I) We also found that the kind of surface made a difference as well. Carpets, for instance, seem to be slightly better places to drop your food than wood or tile. When a carpet was contaminated, less than 1% of the bacteria were transferred. But when the food was in contact with tile or wood, 45-70% of bacteria were.J) Last year, a study from Aston University in the UK used nearly identical parameters（参数）to our study and found similar results. They also reported that 87% of people asked either would eat or had eaten food fallen on the floor.K) Should you eat food fallen on the floor then? From a food safety standpoint, if you have millions or more bacteria on a surface, 0.1% is still enough to make you sick. Also, certain typesof bacteria are extremely harmful, and it takes only a small number to make you sick. For example, 10 bacteria or less of an especially deadly strain of bacteria can cause severe illness and death inpeople with compromised immune systems. But the chance of these bacteria being on most surfaces is very low.L）And it’s not just dropping food on the floor that can lead to bacterial contamination. Bacteria are carried by various “media”, which can include raw food, moist surfaces where bacteria have been left, our hands or skin and from coughing or sneezing（打喷嚏）. Hands, foods and utensils（器皿）can carry individual bacteria living in communities contained within a protective film. These microscopic layers of deposits containing bacteria are known as biofilms and they are found on most surfaces and objects. Biofilm communities can harbor bacteria longer and are very difficult to clean. Becteria in these communities also have an enhanced resistance to sanitizers（清洁剂）and antibiotics compared to bacteria living on their own.M）So the next time you consider eating fallen food, the odds are in your favor that you can eat it without getting sick. But in the rare chance that there is a micro-organism that there is a micro-organism that can make you sick on the exact spot where the food dropped, you can be fairly sure that the bug is on the food you are about to put in your mouth.N）Research or common sense tells us that the best thing to do is keep your hands, utensils and other surfaces clean.36. A research project found bacteria made their way to the food on the floor in five seconds.37. Whether food is contaminated depends much on the number of bacteria that get onto it.38. Food contamination may result from various factors other than food dropping on the floor.39. Males are less likely than females to eat food that may have been contaminated.40. The author’s research centers around how food gets contaminated.41. Keeping everything clean is the best way to stay healthy.42. Chances are you will not fall sick because of eating food picked up from the floor.43. For a long time people have had the experience of deciding whether or not to eat food picked up from the floor.44. Some strains of bacteria are so harmful that a tiny few can have deadly consequences.45. Researchers found how many bacteria got onto the food did not have much to do with how long the food stayed on a contaminated floor.Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Youshould decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 and 50 are based on the following passage.The latest in cat research reveals that the lovely animal seems to have a basic grasp on both the laws of physics and the ins and outs of cause and effect.According to a newly published study, cats seem to be able to predict the location of hiding prey（猎物）using both their ears and an inborn（天生的）understanding of how the physical world works.In a recent experiment, Japanese researchers taped 30 domestic cats reacting to a container that a team member shook. Some containers rattled（发出响声）；others did not. When the container was tipped over, sometimes an object fell out and sometimes it didn’t.It turns out that the cats were remarkably smart about what would happen when a container was tipped over. When an object did not drop out of the bottom of a rattling container, they looked at it for a longer time than they did when the container behaved as expected.“Cats use a causal-logical understanding of noise or sounds to predict the appearance of invisible objects,” lead researcher Saho Takagi says in a press release. The researchers conclude that cats’ hunting style may have developed based on their common-sense abilities to infer where prey is, using their hearing.Scientists have explored this idea with other endearing creatures: babies. Like cats, babies appear to engage in what’s called “preferential looking”—looking longer at things that are interesting or unusual than things they perceive as normal.When babies’ expectations are violated in experiments like the ones performed with the cats, they react much like their animal friends. Psychologists have shown that babies apparently expect their world to comply with the laws of physics and cause and effect as early as two months of age.Does the study mean that cats will soon grasp the ins and outs of cause and effect? Maybe. Okay, so cats may not be the next physics faculty members at America’s most important research universities. But by demonstrating their common sense, they’ve shown that the divide between cats and humans may not be that great after all.46.What do we learn from a newly published study about cats?A) They can be trained to understand the physical world.B) They know what kind of prey might be easier to hunt.C) They have a natural ability to locate animals they hunt.D) They are capable of telling which way their prey flees.47. What may account for the cats’ response to the noise from the containers?A) Their inborn sensitivity to noise.B) Their unusual sense of direction.C) Their special ability to perceive.D) Their mastery of cause and effect.48. What is characteristic of the way cats hunt, according to the Japanese researchers?A) They depend on their instincts. C) They wait some time before attack.B)They rely mainly on their hearing. D) They use both their ears and eyes.49. In what way do babies behave like cats?A) They focus on what appears odd.B) They view the world as normal.C) They do what they prefer to do.D) They are curious about everything.50. What can we conclude about cats from the passage?A) They have higher intelligence than many other animals.B) They interact withe the physical world much like humans.C) They display extraordinarily high intelligence in hunting.D) They can aid physics professors in their research work.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.Imagine you enter a car with no steering wheel, no brake or accelerator padals（踏板）. Under a voice-activated command, you say an address. “The fastest route will take us 15.3 minutes. Should I take it?” You say “yes” and you are on your way. The car responds and starts moving all by itself. All you have to do is sit back and relax.How weird would it be if, one day in the future, everyone had such a car? No crazy driving, no insults, no cutting in; traffic laws would be respected and driving much safer. On the other hand, imagine the cost savings for local police enforcement and town budgets without all those speeding and parking tickets.A new technology has the potential to change modern society in radical ways. There’s no question that self-driving vehicles could be an enormous benefit. The potential for safer cars means accident statistics would drop: some 94% of road accidents in the U.S. involve human error. Older drivers and visually-or physically-impaired people would gain a new level of freedom. Maintaining safe speeds and being electric, self-driving cars would drastically reduce pollution levels and dependency on non-renewable fuels. Roads would be quieter, people safer.But we must also consider the impact of the new technology on those who now depend on driving for their livelihoods. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in May 2015 there were 505,560 registered school bus drivers. The American Trucking Association lists approximately 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the U.S.The companies developing self-driving vehicles should be partnering with state and federal authorities to offer retraining for this massive workforce, many of whom will be displaced by the new technology. This is similar to what’s happening in the coal and oil industries, a situation that fuels much of the current political discontent in this country.New technologies will, and should, be developed. This is how society moves forward. However, progress can’t be one-sided. It is necessary for the companies and state agencies involved to consider the ethical consequences of these potential changes to build a better future for all.51.What would be the impact of the extensive use of driverless cars?A) People would be driving in a more civilized way.B) It would save local governments a lot of money.C) More policemen would be patrolling the streets.D) Traffic regulations would be a thing of the past.52. How would the elderly and the disabled benefit from driverless cars?A) They could enjoy greater mobility.B) They would suffer no road accidents.C) They would have no trouble driving.D) They could go anywhere they want.53. What would be the negative impact of driverless cars?A) The conflict between labor and management would intensify.B) The gap between various sectors of society would be widened.C) Professional drivers would have a hard time adapting to new road conditions.D) Numerous professional drivers would have to find new ways of earning a living.54. What is the result of the introduction of new technologies in energy industries?A) Political dissatisfaction.B) Retraining of employees.C) Fossil fuel conservation.D) Business restructuring.55. What does the author suggest businesses and the government do?A) Keep pace with technological developments.B) Make new technologies affordable to everyone.C) Enable everyone to benefit from new technologies.D) Popularize the use of new technologies and devices.Part Ⅳ Translation (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.过去几年里，移动支付市场在中国蓬勃发展。

2018年12月大学英语四级真题试卷（三）(题后含答案及解析)题型有：1. Writing 2. Listening Comprehension 3. Reading Comprehension 4. TranslationPart I Writing1．For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of studying abroad. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.正确答案：The Challenges of Studying Abroad With the development of society and economy, the number of overseas students continues to grow. This is good for both the country and the students in terms of promoting mutual understanding and reciprocal learning. Nevertheless, some difficult challenges come along with this trend. The first problem overseas students would encounter is language barrier, which is obviously the major source of stress. They have to spend much energy mastering a foreign language. Even if they’ ve already learned it, it is still challenging to fully understand what foreigners talk about due to the unfamiliarity of cultural background and social conventions. Second, another problem faced by overseas students is security accident. In recent years, news about overseas students being murdered, robbed and kidnapped can often be seen on the Internet. In some developed countries, natives barely hide their prejudice against foreigners and some right-wing extremists or racists even bear grudge against Asian people. Last but not least, students have to undertake all the housework by themselves, while it is usually done by their parents when they are at home. They have to face the challenge of living independently. As for me, I believe studying abroad is beneficial despite its hardships. Because in this way students can broaden their horizons and improve their ability to be independent.解析：这是一篇议论文写作。

2018年12月英语四级作文真题及范文【三套全】Directions：For this part，you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of starting a career after graduation. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Currently，whether to start a career after graduation has become a hot topic among people，especially among the young, and heated debates are right on their way. People's opinions about this issue vary from person to person. I consider that starting our own business tends to pose a considerable number of threats to our future.First and foremost, compared with graduate education, our knowledge will be limited and our horizons will be narrowed if we choose to take a position after graduation due to the fact that possessing a bachelor’s degree i s to maintain one’s competitiveness. In addition, applying for a job is likely to take up our precious time which can be used for more valuable activities.Taking all these factors into consideration, we naturally come to the conclusion that we should be prudent and cautious when we face various options after graduation.Directions：For this part，you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of living in a big city. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.Currently，whether to live in a big city has become a hot topic among people，especially among the young, and heated debates are right on their way. People's opinions about this issue vary from person to person. I consider that living in a big city tends to pose a considerable number of threats to our future. First and foremost, since the phenomenon of left-behind children has arisen as one of the most fearful social situations, parents are likely to have less family time with their children, which is detrimental to fostering harmonious families. In addition, busy city life is also negative for our mental health. The fierce competition that exists everywhere in big cities is destructive to our relationship with our colleagues, neighbors, and even friends, resulting in our isolation and loneliness.Taking all these factors into consideration, I solidly consider that we should be prudent and cautious when we consider about the question of whether we should live in big cities.Directions：For this part，you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of studying abroad. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.There is a widespread concern over the issue that whether studying abroad is a good choice after graduation. People, however, differ in their opinions on this matter. From my personal perspective, I hold that it is advisable for the students to study abroad after graduation.There are a variety of reasons for studying overseas. On one hand, students can enrich their knowledge and enlarge their horizons by being exposed to new cultures. On the other hand, the students going abroad can cultivate the spirit of self-dependence. In addition, overseas degrees from top universities in the world can provide more competitive advantages for their future careers than those obtained at home.To make a long story short, it is sensible that we should take a rational attitude when we make a choice. Only in this way can we shoulder the real success.。

2018 年 12 月英语四级真题第三套Part I Writing (30minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on The challenges of living in a big city. You should write at least120 words butno more than 180 words.Part II Listening Comprehension (25 minutes)说明：由于2018年12月四级考试全国共考了2套听力，本套真题听力与前2套内容完全一样，只是顺序不一样，因此在本套真题中不再重复出现。

Part Ⅲ Reading Comprehension (40 minutes) Section ADirections: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a wordbank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully beforemaking your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter.Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words inthe bank more than once.Questions 26 to 35 are based on the following passage.A few months ago, I was down with a terrible cold which ended in a persistent bad cough. No matter how many different 26 I tried, I still couldn’t get rid of the cough. Not only did it 27 my teaching but also my life as a whole. Then one day after class, a student came up to me and 28 traditional Chinese medicine. From her description, Chinese medicine sounded as if it had magic power that worked wonders.I was 29 because I knew so little about it and have never it before. Eventually, my cough got so much 30 that I couldn’t sleep at night, so I decided to give it a try. The Chinese doctor took my pulse and asked to see my tongue, both of which were new 31 to me because they are both non-existent in Western medicine. Then the doctor gave me a scraping（刮）treatment known as “Gua Sha”.I was a little 32 at first because he used a smooth edged tool to scrape the skin on my neck and shoulders. A few minutes later, the 33 strokes started to produce a relieving effect and my body and mind began to 34 deeper into relaxation. I didn’t feel any improvement in my condition in the first couple of days, but after a few more regular visits to the doctor, my cough started to 35 . Then, within a matter of weeks, it was completely gone!A)DeepenB)ExperiencesC)HesitantD)InconvenienceE)LessenF)licensesG)PressuredH)HrecommendedI)RemediesJ)ScaredK)SensitiveL)SinkM)TemporaryN)TrembleO)worseSection BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of theparagraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information isderived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraphis marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking thecorresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.Is it really OK to eat food that's fallen on the floorA)When you drop a piece of food on the floor, is it really OK to eat if you pick it up within five seconds? An urban food myth contends that if food spends just a few seconds on the floor, dirt and germs won’t have much of a chance to contaminate it. Researc h in my lab has focused on how food becomes contaminated, and we’ve done some work on this particular piece of wisdom.B)While the “five-second rule” might not seem like the most pressing issue for food scientists to get to the bottom of, it’s still worth in vestigating food myths like this one because they shape our beliefs about when food is safe to eat.C)So is five seconds on the floor the critical threshold（门槛）that separates a piece of eatable food from a case of food poisoning? It’s a bit more complicated than that. It depends on just how many bacteria can make it from floor to food in a few seconds and just how dirty the floor is.D)Wondering if food is still OK to eat after it’s dropped on the floor is a pretty common experience. And it’s probably not a new one either. A well-known, but inaccurate, story about Julia Child may have contributed to this food myth. Some viewers of her cooking show, The French Chef, insist they saw Child drop lamb onthe floor and pick it up, with the advice that if they were alone in the kitchen, their guests would never know.E)In fact it was a potato pancake, and it fell on the stovetop, not on the floor. Child put it back in the pan, saying, “But you can always pick it up and if you’re alone in the kitchen, who’s going to see it?” But the misremembered story persists. It’s harder to pin down the origins of the oft-quoted five-second rule, but a 2003 study reported that 70% of women and 56% of men surveyed were familiar with the five-second rule and that women were more likely than men to eat food that had dropped on the floor.F)So what does science tell us about what a few moments on the floor means for the safety of your food? The earliest research report on the five-second rule is attributed to Jillian Clarke, a high school student participating in a research project at the University of Illinois. Clarke and her colleagues introduced bacteria to floor tiles（瓷砖）and then placed cookies on the tiles for varying times. They reported bacteria were transferred from the tiles to the cook ies within five seconds, but didn’t report the specific amount of bacteria that made it from the tiles to the food.G)But how many bacteria actually transfer in five seconds? In 2007, my lab at Clemson University published a study in the Journal of Applied Microbiology. We wanted to know if the length of time food is in contact with a contaminated surface affected the rate of transfer of bacteria to the food. To find out, we introduced bacteria to squares of tile, carpet or wood. Five minutes after that, we placed either bacon or bread on the surface for 5,30 or 60 seconds, and then measured the number of bacteria transferred to the food. We repeated this exact procedure after the bacteria had been on the surface for 2,4,8 and 24 hours.H)We found that the number of bacteria transferred to either kind of food didn’t depend much on how long the food was in contact with the contaminated surface—whether for a few seconds or for a whole minute. The overall number of bacteria on the surface mattered more, and this decreased over time after the initial introduction. It looks like what’s at issue is less how long your food stays on the floor and much more how contaminated with bacteria that patch of floor happens to be.I)We also found that the kind of surface made a difference as well. Carpets, for instance, seem to be slightly better places to drop your food than wood or tile. When a carpet was contaminated, less than 1% of the bacteria were transferred. But when the food was in contact with tile or wood, 45-70% of bacteria were.J)Last year, a study from Aston University in the UK used nearly identical parameters（参数）to our study and found similar results. They also reported that 87% of people asked either would eat or had eaten food fallen on the floor.K)Should you eat food fallen on the floor then? From a food safety standpoint, if you have millions or more bacteria on a surface, 0.1% is still enough to make you sick. Also, certain types of bacteria are extremely harmful, and it takes only a smallnumber to make you sick. For example, 10 bacteria or less of an especially deadly strain of bacteria can cause severe illness and death in people with compromised immune systems. But the chance of these bacteria being on most surfaces is very low.L)And it’s not just dropping food on the floor that can lead to bacterial contamination. Bacteria are carried by various “media”, which can include raw food, moist surfaces where bacteria have been left, our hands or skin and from coughing or sneezing（打喷嚏）. Hands, foods and utensils（器皿）can carry individual bacteria living in communities contained within a protective film. These microscopic layers of deposits containing bacteria are known as biofilms and they are found on most surfaces and objects. Biofilm communities can harbor bacteria longer and are very difficult to clean. Becteria in these communities also have an enhanced resistance to sanitizers（清洁剂）and antibiotics compared to bacteria living on their own.M)So the next time you consider eating fallen food, the odds are in your favor that you can eat it without getting sick. But in the rare chance that there is a micro-organism that there is a micro-organism that can make you sick on the exact spot where the food dropped, you can be fairly sure that the bug is on the food you are about to put in your mouth.N)Research or common sense tells us that the best thing to do is keep your hands, utensils and other surfaces clean.36.A research project found bacteria made their way to the food on the floor in five seconds.37.Whether food is contaminated depends much on the number of bacteria that get onto it.38.Food contamination may result from various factors other than food dropping on the floor.39.Males are less likely than females to eat food that may have been contaminated.40.The author’s research ce nters around how food gets contaminated.41.Keeping everything clean is the best way to stay healthy.42.Chances are you will not fall sick because of eating food picked up from the floor.43.For a long time people have had the experience of deciding whether or not to eat food picked up from the floor.44.Some strains of bacteria are so harmful that a tiny few can have deadly consequences.45.Researchers found how many bacteria got onto the food did not have much to do with how long the food stayed on a contaminated floor.Section CDirections:There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are fourchoices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choiceand mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single linethrough the centre.Passage OneQuestions 46 and 50 are based on the following passage.The latest in cat research reveals that the lovely animal seems to have a basic grasp on both the laws of physics and the ins and outs of cause and effect.According to a newly published study, cats seem to be able to predict the location of hiding prey（猎物）using both their ears and an inborn（天生的）understanding of how the physical world works.In a recent experiment, Japanese researchers taped 30 domestic cats reacting to a container that a team member shook. Some containers rattled（发出响声）；others did not. When the container was tipped over, sometimes an object fell out and sometimes it didn’t.It turns out that the cats were remarkably smart about what would happen when a container was tipped over. When an object did not drop out of the bottom of a rattling container, they looked at it for a longer time than they did when the container behaved as expected.“Cats us e a causal-logical understanding of noise or sounds to predict the appearance of invisible objects,” lead researcher Saho Takagi says in a press release. The researchers conclude that cats’ hunting style may have developed based on their common-sense abilities to infer where prey is, using their hearing.Scientists have explored this idea with other endearing creatures: babies. Like cats, babies appear to engage in what’s called “preferential looking”—looking longer at things that are interesting or unusual than things they perceive as normal.When babies’ expectations are violated in experiments like the ones performed with the cats, they react much like their animal friends. Psychologists have shown that babies apparently expect their world to comply with the laws of physics and cause and effect as early as two months of age.Does the study mean that cats will soon grasp the ins and outs of cause and effect? Maybe. Okay, so cats may not be the next physics faculty members at America’s most important researc h universities. But by demonstrating their common sense, they’ve shown that the divide between cats and humans may not be that great after all.46. What do we learn from a newly published study about cats?A) They can be trained to understand the physical world.B) They know what kind of prey might be easier to hunt.C) They have a natural ability to locate animals they hunt.D) They are capable of telling which way their prey flees.47. What may account for the cats’ response to the noise from the containe rs?A) Their inborn sensitivity to noise.B) Their unusual sense of direction.C) Their special ability to perceive.D) Their mastery of cause and effect.48.What is characteristic of the way cats hunt, according to the Japanese researchers?A)They depend on their instincts.B)They rely mainly on their hearing.C) They wait some time before attack.D) They use both their ears and eyes.49. In what way do babies behave like cats?A) They focus on what appears odd.B) They view the world as normal.C) They do what they prefer to do.D) They are curious about everything.50. What can we conclude about cats from the passage?A) They have higher intelligence than many other animals.B) They interact with the physical world much like humans.C) They display extraordinarily high intelligence in hunting.D) They can aid physics professors in their research work.Passage TwoQuestions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.Imagine you enter a car with no steering wheel, no brake or accelerator padals（踏板）. Under a voice-activated command, you say an address. “The fastest route will take us 15.3 minutes. Should I take it?” You say “yes” and you are on your way. The car responds and starts moving all by itself. All you have to do is sit back and relax.How weird would it be if, one day in the future, everyone had such a car? No crazy driving, no insults, no cutting in; traffic laws would be respected and driving much safer. On the other hand, imagine the cost savings for local police enforcement and town budgets without all those speeding and parking tickets.A new technology has the potential to change modern society in radical ways. There’s no question that self-driving vehicles could be an enormous benefit. The potential for safer cars means accident statistics would drop: some 94% of road accidents in the U.S. involve human error. Older drivers and visually-or physically-impaired people would gain a new level of freedom. Maintaining safe speeds and being electric, self-driving cars would drastically reduce pollution levels anddependency on non-renewable fuels. Roads would be quieter, people safer.But we must also consider the impact of the new technology on those who now depend on driving for their livelihoods. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in May 2015 there were 505,560 registered school bus drivers. The American Trucking Association lists approximately 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the U.S.The companies developing self-driving vehicles should be partnering with state and federal authorities to offer retraining for this massive workforce, many of whom will be displaced by the new technology. This is similar to what’s happening in the coal and oil industries, a situation that fuels much of the current political discontent in this country.New technologies will, and should, be developed. This is how society moves forward. However, progress can’t be one-sided. It is necessary for the companies and state agencies involved to consider the ethical consequences of these potential changes to build a better future for all.51.What would be the impact of the extensive use of driverless cars?A)People would be driving in a more civilized way.B)It would save local governments a lot of money.C)More policemen would be patrolling the streets.D)Traffic regulations would be a thing of the past.52.How would the elderly and the disabled benefit from driverless cars?A)They could enjoy greater mobility.B)They would suffer no road accidents.C)They would have no trouble driving.D)They could go anywhere they want.53.What would be the negative impact of driverless cars?A)The conflict between labor and management would intensify.B)The gap between various sectors of society would be widened.C)Professional drivers would have a hard time adapting to new road conditions.D)Numerous professional drivers would have to find new ways of earning a living.54.What is the result of the introduction of new technologies in energy industries?A)Political dissatisfaction.B)Retraining of employees.C)Fossil fuel conservation.D)Business restructuring.55.What does the author suggest businesses and the government do?A)Keep pace with technological developments.B)Make new technologies affordable to everyone.C)Enable everyone to benefit from new technologies.D)Popularize the use of new technologies and devices.Part Ⅳ Translation (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English. You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.过去几年里，移动支付市场在中国蓬勃发展。

2018年12月英语四级作文真题及范文【三套全】Directions：For this part，you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of starting a career after graduation. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. Currently，whether to start a career after graduation has become a hot topic among people，especially among the young, and heated debates are right on their way. People's opinions about this issue vary from person to person. I consider that starting our own business tends to pose a considerable number of threats to our future.First and foremost, compared with graduate education, our knowledge will be limited and our horizons will be narrowed if we choose to take a position after graduation due to the fact that possessing a bachelor’s degree i s to maintain one’s competitiveness. In addition, applying for a job is likely to take up our precious time which can be used for more valuable activities.Taking all these factors into consideration, we naturally come to the conclusion that we should be prudent and cautious when we face various options after graduation.Directions：For this part，you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of living in a big city. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.Currently，whether to live in a big city has become a hot topic among people，especially among the young, and heated debates are right on their way. People's opinions about this issue vary from person to person. I consider that living in a big city tends to pose a considerable number of threats to our future. First and foremost, since the phenomenon of left-behind children has arisen as one of the most fearful social situations, parents are likely to have less family time with their children, which is detrimental to fostering harmonious families. In addition, busy city life is also negative for our mental health. The fierce competition that exists everywhere in big cities is destructive to our relationship with our colleagues, neighbors, and even friends, resulting in our isolation and loneliness.Taking all these factors into consideration, I solidly consider that we should be prudent and cautious when we consider about the question of whether we should live in big cities.Directions：For this part，you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the challenges of studying abroad. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.There is a widespread concern over the issue that whether studying abroad is a good choice after graduation. People, however, differ in their opinions on this matter. From my personal perspective, I hold that it is advisable for the students to study abroad after graduation.There are a variety of reasons for studying overseas. On one hand, students can enrich their knowledge and enlarge their horizons by being exposed to new cultures. On the other hand, the students going abroad can cultivate the spirit of self-dependence. In addition, overseas degrees from top universities in the world can provide more competitive advantages for their future careers than those obtained at home.To make a long story short, it is sensible that we should take a rational attitude when we make a choice. Only in this way can we shoulder the real success.。